‘Blankie’ Peters dies after motorcycle accident

Ann-Marie DeCaul is thankful for life, and she is looking forward to feeling the breeze in her face, next time she rides on a motorcycle.{{more}}

“Yeah, me ain’t must ride bike again? That won’t dishearten me.”

A surprising response from DeCaul, 49, who was the pillion rider on motor cycle PQ299 last Monday, October 27, which was involved in an accident that claimed the life of her boyfriend of eight years, Joel “Blankie” Peters.

Peters died in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, one day before his 46th birthday.

“He was planning to buy a few drinks and have a lime by me this weekend,” said DeCaul when SEARCHLIGHT visited her at the Female Surgical Ward of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital last Wednesday.



DeCaul said that she is brokenhearted about what happened to Peters, but “I have to get through this.”

She said that she and Peters had journeyed to the Black Point Recreation Site at Mt. Young to hang out at the Domino competition that was being held there.

Peters lived at Fairhall but was spending the Independence weekend at Decaul’s Bridgetown home.

The mother of six told SEARCHLIGHT that they went there at around 5 p.m. and left shortly after 8 p.m. for home, which is when the accident occurred.

When they reached the Colonarie stretch, Peters tried to overtake a passenger van and ran into a car.

The official police report of October 28th indicated that the vehicle that Peters collided into was a rental vehicle (RQ942).

“I feel is like the bike pick up a different riding…I hear him say ‘Oh God, ah dead’,” Decaul said.

She said that while liming at Mt Young, Peters was drinking Guinness but he wasn’t drunk.

“I see him drink much more than that already, he was riding normal, and he wasn’t speeding,” she stressed.

The injured couple was transported to the Georgetown Hospital before being transferred to Kingstown, the more seriously hurt Peters, and then Decaul.

“When I reached in the hospital (in Kingstown) the doctor told me that he (Peters) dead,” DeCaul said.

As for her, she suffered a broken right ankle and got some bruises in her back and side.

“I was in a lot of pain, like I didn’t know myself,” she said.

DeCaul was expected have surgery yesterday (Thursday, October 30) on her broken ankle.

“I give God thanks because it could have been worse for me,” the woman, who is the janitor at the Biabou Police Station, sighed.



Meanwhile, the staff at the Finishing and Furnishing factory at Diamond are grieving the loss of their beloved “Bankie”, who was the senior repairs person there.

“We suffered a great loss, a great loss,” said La Fleur Richardson, a supervisor at the factory.

She told SEARCHLIGHT that the factory remained closed last Tuesday as a mark of respect to Peters and while work resumed on Wednesday, the usually upbeat mood at the factory was noticeably absent, as the workers tried to come to terms with their colleague’s death.