Youth loses life shortly after buying motorcycle

Two days before Dorren Shallow’s death, his mother begged him not to buy or ride a motorbike.{{more}}

Despite her pleas and warnings from his employer and friends, Shallow, 23, went ahead and bought the motorbike.

Their worst fears were realized on Good Friday, April 18, when around 2 p.m., shortly after picking up the motorbike, Shallow, a mechanic and construction worker, ran off the Fountain public road and landed in a drain.

Shallow succumbed to his injuries at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital that same day.

“He came here on Wednesday and was telling me about this bike. He said he was going to pick up the bike this week. I put my hands on my head and say, please Derry, them things does kill people fast. Please buy a car. He said ‘Mummy, I ain’t go speed and don’t worry yourself’,” Shallow’s mother, Leila Job told SEARCHLIGHT.

She added that her son was constantly texting her about the motorbike and she urged him not to get it.

“I warned him, I warned him. Other people told him not to buy any bike,” she said.

According to the distraught mother, she was at home on Friday when she sent her son a text message, but did not receive a reply.

“I took up my phone and went to get Internet connection from someone. When I was texting him, I got a phone call stating that Derron got into an accident in Fountain and he was at the hospital and the doctor said to come immediately because he (Derron) wouldn’t make it…,” Job recalled.

Job said at that point, she recalled screaming and was not responding when persons around spoke to her.

“I was just not there… Somebody gave me a ride and while in the vehicle somebody call me and told me my son passed away,” Job said with a loud sigh.

On arrival at the hospital, she said she asked the doctors permission to see her son, but was told that she would not be allowed to see him in her condition.

“When I calmed down, the pastor accompanied me into the room and when I went into the room and saw him, I placed my rag to my mouth and the pastor had to comfort me,” said Job.

According to his death certificate, Shallow died as a result of a laceration to the heart and Cardiac Tamponade.

She also said her son suffered injuries to his face.

The distraught mother, who took long pauses during her interview with SEARCHLIGHT, described her son as a loving child who worked hard.

“He was the best of all. All my children are nice, but he was just a very nice boy. He loves to make jokes. He was just fun-loving,” she added.

Meanwhile, Leopold Carr, Shallow’s employer, and with whom he had been living for about seven years, said he too, warned the young man about buying a motorcycle.

The contractor said sometime in January, Shallow asked to borrow $2,000 to purchase a motorcycle.

“I tell him I am not going to lend him any money to buy no bike. From that, he was not telling me anything. It’s like he was keeping the bike story away from me. I get to understand that the money he was getting, he was paying down on the bike,” Carr said.

He added that some of his other workmen said after Shallow was paid last Thursday, he told them he was going to make the last payment for the bike.

Carr said he would miss Shallow, who, he said, was a young man who always worked hard for what he wanted.

“I just didn’t want him to buy a bike. Even his co-workers begged him not to buy a bike. I don’t think nobody could have deterred him from getting that bike,” Carr stated.

Shallow will be laid to rest at the Dumbarton cemetery, on Sunday, April 27, following a funeral service which will take place at the Mesopotamia Seventh Day Adventist Church. (KW)