Portion of road at Ratho Mill claims another life

The portion of road at Ratho Mill, which over the years has earned the name “spin around corner” and “haunted corner,” has claimed yet another life.

Murray’s Village resident Alvin Bacchus became this country’s second road fatality for 2017, when on Monday morning his vehicle ran off the road at Ratho Mill around 2:30.

The police say that Bacchus was driving P4686, a white Suzuki Swift owned by Andrew Arrindell of Orange Grove, when he crashed in the area of Ratho Mill where a number of road fatalities and serious accidents have taken place in the past. Bacchus was heading in the direction of Calliaqua.

Bacchus, 38, was employed in the construction industry and has been described by friends as a fun-loving person who loved life. He was a past student of the St Vincent Grammar School.

A police source told SEARCHLIGHT that at the time of the accident, a male Trinidadian was also in the vehicle. That man escaped unhurt and is currently assisting the police with their investigations.

The area where Bacchus apparently lost control of the vehicle has become notorious for motor vehicle accidents and other strange incidents.

On Friday, November 27, 2015, Oswald DeFreitas and Jillian Nanton died in an accident on that piece of road, while Elsa DeFreitas, Joel Veira and Joel Davy were seriously injured. The day before, on Thursday, November 26, there was also an accident in that same area.

On December 24, 2015, Francis Thomas, a resident of King’s Hill, Diamond, and a father of two, was killed in a motor vehicular accident on that stretch of road.

In 1998, West Indies cricketer Winston Davis was left a tetraplegic, after falling from a tree in the area while helping clear land for a new church, while on Friday, September 19, 2008, 67-year-old Patricia Jack-Bowman lost her life when a huge section of businessman Alex Jack’s retaining wall broke and buried her car at Ratho Mill, along the same stretch of road.

In 2015, a motorist whose vehicle crashed on this piece of road, opined that the accidents are caused by a steel grating in the road that causes vehicles to slide when they come into contact with it.

The first road fatality for 2017 occured on March 16, when Union Island resident Shirley Isaacs died after being pinned by her motor vehicle when it rolled back on her.