A middle-aged Lightfoot man lost his life yesterday at approximately 1:30 pm in the country’s third road fatality for 2010.
Foster Alexander ”Phantom” Cornelius, 58, died when his dump truck, a white Hyundai, C7586, overturned on the brow of Lony Hill, just outside Half Moon Bay.
According to a police report, the truck was travelling from west to east when the driver apparently lost control, ran off the road on the northern side and collided with a utility pole causing it to break into three parts.
The vehicle then overturned trapping the driver halfway inside. The victim sustained a gash to the head and bled profusely for some time before he died.
When the emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene they were unable to assist the victim as the electrical wires on the damaged pole posed a danger as they were resting on the vehicle.
Workers from Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) were summoned to the scene, but by the time they arrived and disconnected the wires, Cornelius was already dead.
Cornelius’ body was removed from the wreckage and taken to Barnes Funeral Home after the district doctor made the official pronouncement of death.
Police measured about 118 feet of fresh skid marks on the well-surfaced road, and another 110 feet of spilled maul stones from the skid mark to the point where the vehicle came to rest.
The deceased man, a contractor who worked for Gilkes Enterprises, was on his way to deliver the maul to a work site at Mill Reef.
Cornelius is survived by his wife Claudine, seven children, two step-children and 10 grandchildren.
One of Cornelius’ sons, Dwaint Kelton Cornelius, who was the last to arrive at the site, said a sorrow-filled scene greeted him.
“When I come everybody was here; his wife Claudine, everybody. Everybody was crying so I had to go down to the truck and ask the police to find out myself what really happen,” the bereaved son said.
The man recalled his father as, “Cool, calm and collective, and he was very strict when it came to us, his four girls and three boys. He loved us and everybody loved him.”
The police are investigating the cause of the accident.
The country’s first road fatality was in March, while the second occurred two weeks ago.
