A benefit will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at Tickles Bar and Restaurant in Crown Bay for the family of Kenon Brasher who died Sunday morning from injuries received in a Saturday evening pedestrian accident at Red Hook.
Brasher and his wife, Annette, were crossing the busy Red Hook road when they were hit by a car coming from the west. They were both taken to Roy L. Schneider Hospital, where Brasher died early Sunday morning and his wife remains with serious back and wrist injuries.
Family friends Eric Ferreira and Cleone Hodge of Ace Flight Center are arranging the benefit concert which will feature Sonny G and the Busted Symbols.
Brasher had worked at the airport for several years as an aircraft mechanic and inspector.
Friends are shocked at the news. Ferreira said, "Donations are already pouring in for the benefit.
"Ken and Ann were basically inseparable, you never saw one without the other." The couple had lived on the island since 1993, and have two children, Kirk and Vickie, and several grandchildren.
Donations can also be sent to Ace Flight Center, North Ramp, Cyril E. King Airport, or Bradford Aircraft and Marine, 86 Sub Base, St. Thomas, V.I. 00802.
The Red Hook community is saddened and outraged at the accident. Corrine Van Rensselaer, owner of the Color of Joy art gallery in Red Hook, said, "Something has to be done." Van Renssselaer said she has long been trying to get the Public Works Department to do something about the dangerous stretch of road before a tragedy, such as the fatal accident Saturday, happened.
Andrea King, head of the five-month-old Citizens Alliance for an Improved Red Hook, said the group has been trying through Public Works to get at least a crosswalk identified on the road. "The speeding is terrible," she said, "cars just barrel through here, trucks blaring their horns – it's not a user-friendly road."
Van Rensselaer said, "At least signs at either end of the Red Hook road announcing a speed limit and a crosswalk would be a good start." King said the Lockhart family, which owns Red Hook Plaza, had considered cutting a hole in the wall of the plaza to accommodate a crosswalk. "It's very auto-friendly," said King, "but pedestrians can't see cars coming from either direction at the entrance and exits of the plaza which are on curves."
King said there is only one "half" crosswalk in front of Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, which is attended by 1,000 children – and half of that was obliterated and paved over. "It's nuts," she said. Hundreds of people cross the Red Hook road every day, King said.
She said Public Works has been helpful in removing a lot of the abandoned cars on the road and putting gravel down along the cricket field. "We removed three abandoned vehicles a couple months ago, but there's already two others taking their place," she said. There is a lot of red tape to get speed bumps installed in the road, King said.
The person who hit the Brashers has not been identified by the police, nor is it known if the driver was speeding.
The Citizens Alliance has received strong community support. King said the group's next meeting is 6 p.m. Mon., Nov. 20 at American Yacht Harbor, mezzanine floor, and the public is invited.
