Pastor Curtis Meris comforts the crowd at the bus stop of the fatal accident. Photo Caribisch Netwerk / Dick Drayer
TSXM – WILLEMSTAD – Around 500 relatives, friends acquaintances and others took part in a silent march to commemorate the death of three joggers – members of the roadrunners club Curacao – who died last Sunday a week ago near the roundabout in Parasasa after a drunk driver his them at high speed. The joggers – Monique van Meerwijk, Elton Montesant and Kristen Leyba – were part of a group of fifty people that took part in a sponsor run for scouting.
Dick Drayer, a radio-reporter for Caribisch Netwerk spoke with a close friend of one of the victims, Kristen Leyba. “She was really sweet, small of posture, but a large personality,” the friend said. “She was a good human being.”
The atmosphere at the silent march was one of compassion, sadness and anger, Drayer reported. People mourned the victims and criticized the government for the unsafety in the traffic on the island and for the bad road signs.
Ironically, the participants in the silent march had to make way for an ambulance that passed by the scene of the fatal accident, possibly on its way to another victim of the island’s volatile traffic.
“I think that boy did not do this on purpose,” one participant said. “I am protesting against the government because it does not make sure that road signs are clear.”
Pastor Curtis Meris addressed the crowd at the roundabout in Parasasa where the accident happened Sunday morning a week ago. The bench at the nearby bus stop said it all: Life is short. Pray hard.”
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