by MARIA BRADSHAW

A POPULAR DENTAL TECHNICIAN has become the 12th person to die on the roads this year.

Anderson Cox, 46, of Breezy Hill, St Philip, died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital last Saturday after being involved in a collision with another vehicle on August 12, at Hanson Hill, St George.

Cox suffered an injury to the back of the head and never regained consciousness. The other vehicle was driven by Larry Kinch, of Christ Church.

The death has left the close-knit family shocked and dismayed.

Mother Ione Cox, who lives in Tortola, and his brother Collin, who lives in California, rushed to Barbados after receiving the devastating news.

Ione said when she heard her son had been in an accident, she came back here hoping to see him with some cuts and bruises and probably a few broken bones.

"I thought that he would be telling me that he would be okay soon. I did not come prepared for this," she stated.

The family was sent further into depression when two days after arrival, Ione received news that her older sister, Myrtle, had died in Tortola.

"I spoke with her on the Sunday and on Tuesday I received a call that she had a stroke and died. Now I will have to go back there on Thursday for her funeral and then come back here to bury my son."

Cox, who repaired dental equipment and machines, also leaves to mourn two daughters – Maisha, 18, and Shanice, 16, who relocated to the United States last year.

The family said Cox had single-handedly raised the two girls from the time there were babies.

Sadly, on the day of the accident, he had hours before dropped off the older daughter at her grandfather's. She was in Barbados visiting him before enrolling at university.