Broken dream

Plans for an ambitious inner-city youth to work overseas and build his dream home in Jamaica have ended after the tragic news that the Rockfort, east Kingston, native died in a motor vehicle accident in The Cayman Islands on Boxing Day.

Romario Jacquet, 26, who investigators say was the driver of a Subaru sedan, died early yesterday morning following a crash on Shamrock Road near the junction of Midway Close in the Lower Valley area of Bodden Town in Grand Cayman.

According to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS), the single-vehicle collision happened around 2:20 a.m.

The Gleaner understands that police and other emergency services responded to the report of the deadly crash.

The white Subaru was reportedly travelling eastbound when it went off the road and smashed into a tree.

Three people inside the mangled vehicle, some of whom are believed to also be Jamaicans, were taken to the Cayman Islands Hospital.

Jacquet’s father, Bikela Jacquet, described ‘Mari’, as he was affectionately called, as a jovial youth.

“He is a loving, promising youth. He doesn’t even have a police record. Him clean. He is not a troublemaker, and he is well loved,” Jacquet told The Gleaner.

His father left Jamaica and took Mari, his first child, under his wing in The Cayman Islands.

“We were living same place in Cayman. I came here, help him come here. He was here working then got involved in a car accident and lose his life,” the elder Jaquet said.

Mari was in Cayman for two years and six months.

His father told The Gleaner that Mari was waiting for him and keeping his money for the dream house.

“He was planning to build his house, but he wanted to wait until I came back. I’m returning to Jamaica soon, so he wanted to build his house, and he wanted me to do it. He wanted someone he could trust to handle his money. That was the next move for him,” the grieving father said.

He told The Gleaner that his son wanted his own place and had plans to travel back and forth, working and earning his honest bread.

He said he was numb when he heard the news yesterday.

“My sister call me first, and even though is a sister that I relate to very well, I still couldn’t face the reality, couldn’t believe. I believed when I spoke to the doctor himself. I knew my sister wasn’t lying, but I couldn’t face the reality to know a youth like this pass off,” Jacquet said.

The visibly broken father said even Mari’s friends and colleagues at the airport in Grand Cayman, where he worked, were saddened by the fatal crash.

“Even here, the whole work team was at the hospital this morning. His boss call me crying. The secretary called me crying. The whole staff. I don’t know how the airport run today (yesterday). They were concerned [and] wanted to know what happened and wanted to see him, but the protocol wouldn’t allow,” Mari’s father said.

Mari and his three friends in the vehicle were reportedly coming from a Christmas staff party.

“It was a work party, but they say he wasn’t drinking, so that puzzling to me. But people still can crash even when they are sober. It was raining. I spoke to the boss and he said he wasn’t drinking because he was supposed to go to work today (yesterday). He was planning to wake early and leave to work,” the senior Jacquet said.

He said Mari was almost home when the crash occurred.

Other relatives described Mari as a good human being who got along with everybody.

His younger sister gave The Gleaner a nod of approval when asked if they had a good relationship.

She was too distraught to speak at the family home yesterday.

Mari’s death, the latest road fatality, brings the death toll on local roads in The Cayman Islands for 2024 to 13, three of which have occurred in December.

On May 13, 2024, three Jamaicans were killed in a fiery five-vehicle crash about 12:15 a.m.

Those killed were Shakara Stewart, 41; Junior Whittaker, 30; and 53-year-old Vinroy ‘Fletcher’ Grant.

All three were living and working in Grand Cayman.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com