Promise not kept

Shontell Davidson is sorry that her brother Chad Williams did not keep the promise he made to her on Tuesday evening, before riding off on a motorcycle.

Leaning on Williams’ unfinished workshop, at his Beckwith Street, The City, home this morning, a tearful Davidson noted that if the 28-year-old had kept his word, she would not be now grieving over his tragic death.

“I saw him before he left and he told me he coming back. Chad said he was coming back,” a devastated Davidson said through the tears that trickled down her cheeks. She recounted the last conversation she had with Williams.

“Usually he would go and he would come back,” she said in a soft voice.

Williams, was the island’s fourth road fatality for the year, and the second in less than 24 hours.

Nineteen-year-old Delano Seale died in a collision involving a car and a wrecker truck, at the intersection of Tweedside Road, Government Hill, Welches, St Michael, around 1:10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Williams was pronounced dead at Heywoods Road, St Peter, on Tuesday night, after the motorcycle he was riding was involved in a collision with a route taxi driven by Nikolai Greaves, 31, of Freyers Well Road, Checker Hall Tenantry Road #2, St Lucy.

Greaves was the only person in the route taxi at the time the accident. Police said the motorcycle was travelling in the opposite direction when the rider collided head-on with the vehicle.

The driver of the route taxi complained of injuries to both of his feet and pain about his body.

The motor van was extensively damaged.

Barbados TODAY understands that Williams, a former Lester Vaughn School student, went through the route taxi’s windshield and was trapped inside that vehicle. The motorcycle burst into flames. A fire tender responded to the scene.

Black flags were hanging from houses on Beckwith Street, as shocked residents, young and old, struggled to come to grips with Williams’ death. They described him as an ambitious young man.

His sister recalled that when she got word that the youngest of her mother’s three children was involved in the horrific accident, she and several others rushed to the hospital, hoping that her sibling arrived alive in an ambulance.

“I was hoping and praying that he would come and we would get to see him. But then to find out that he died on the spot . . .,” she said.

The 36-year-old said she had a good relationship with her brother with whom she often enjoyed long conversations.

“We would just sit and talk about anything. He was the nicest person that you would ever meet. Nobody out here can’t say anything bad about Chad.

“He was always smiling. Chad was quiet. Chad used to do he own work, go wherever he going, carry school he daughter and come back home,” Davidson recalled.

The motorcyclist who installed windscreens lived with his father Andrew Williams.

When approached, Andrew said he was not handling the loss of his only child well and was taking some time for himself.

The father said this was an especially difficult time for him because he lost Williams’ mother, Julieth Davidson, in 2017.

“I don’t even know what to say about my son right now. It is hard. He is gone and I don’t know how to handle it. If you look you would see Chad was working on building over the house and his workshop,” was all Andrew managed to say, before disappearing into his house.

Davidson said Williams, who loved football, had two children, Chaddain, 9, and Jazae, 6.

Young men and women were gathered in groups with tear-stained faces, reflecting on William’s life. Elderly folks could be seen at their windows with shocked and saddened expressions.

Resident Joan Marshall was the person who broke the news of William’s death to the neighbourhood after receiving a call from a friend who works in St Peter.

“I notified the fellas at my shop. Then them start holding them head and crying and then them move off and went on the scene. Chad was like a son to me. He was a youngster that I really loved, and that is the truth. I am so sorry about his death,” said Marshall.

Paulina Johngrant held Williams as a baby and helped his mother to take care of him. It is this bond that made Johngrant rush to her former neighbourhood at Beckwith Street this morning.

“Normally when I come down here I would see him, but when I came here yesterday I didn’t see him at all. I did not know that Friday was my last day to see him.

“His mother was my son’s godmother, and I used to be by them and keep the children when the mother and father going out. Chad was a nice loving child; he was not one to get himself in trouble,” said Johngrant. anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb