He died Easter Sunday on Milford Road, Ocho Rios, St Ann on a day when he was going to race cars – his passion.
Dead is Andre Ducasse, affectionately known as Billy, 27, a mechanic of Eltham, St Ann.
Friends have been pointing to the cruel irony that on Sunday, April 16 Billy was going to be racing his fast, modified 1991 Honda Accord. He had the car for the weekend putting the finishing touches to it and he and colleagues thought it about ready for the show.
Then with a friend as passenger, he came out on the road with the car, not a mile from his garage where others expected him that morning and moved off. The car got out of control, and collided in a tree at the foot of Milford Road, across from Ocho Rios High School.
Nearby Ocho Rios Fire department personnel had to cut him and a colleague from the wreckage. Ducasse was pronounced dead at hospital and the other man treated for injuries. North Coast Times could not confirm that the passenger had no broken bones and was released last week.
Born in July 1989, at the time of his death Billy was running his own business, a popular local star in the world of auto racing. He had no children. His fans and friends had a candle light service that crawled traffic for hours along Milford Road days after he died.
He loved cars, fixed them, drove them fast and almost never left his customers or motorists dissatisfied, said people who came by his shop at Milford Road, near the entrance to Great Pond, Ocho Rios, Thursday evening.
The mood and activities of the previous days since his demise were being repeated again last Thursday afternoon, April 20 as his friends and colleagues were still about the shop drinking, smoking, reminiscing, grieving and trying to put a brave face on things. They described themselves as brothers, best friends to Billy.
The car that killed him was draped in blue tarpaulin against the modified container that served as office and shop and garage. Inside was the woman he wanted to marry. She had rushed into the island, from Atlanta, only seven or so hours after his death.
Two of his friends and colleagues said they hadn’t been able to go to work since Sunday.
Those who knew him loved him, his free spirit, his generosity and his knowledge about cars, they told The Times.
Dominique Murray is one of those friends. He works at Sandals and said he had first come to know of Billy because he had car wiring problems that no one seemed to be able to fix.
Billy came to his yard, as he did for many others, fixed it and then Mr Murray realized he had engine problems as well. He wanted to dispose of the car. “I tell him (Billy) sell it,” he remembered. Billy advised against it and fixed the engine. No charge. Friendship born. “He was a brother to me, a brother I never had,” Murray said.
When he got the news of Billy’s death from texts and pictures on a busy morning for friends on social media, “Mi tun fool. Mi never know whe fi do,” he said. But he left work and rushed to the scene and then the shop.
Troy Wilson claims Billy as his best friend too. His brother, mother and father. At one time Billy became part of his household. Only recently Billy sent him a picture from years back with both of them chilling out at a spot with the caption “Memba this.” That picture is now on the back of Wilson’s car and has been circulated widely.
In trying to give The Times a time line about Billy’s life, Troy Wilson kept getting dates wrong and not being able to maintain his train of thought, before admitting that the death had overwhelmed him.
He remembered though times going back nearly five years when he operated a garage at Chuck’s Plaza in the heart of Ocho Rios. He remembers too that those were good days. “Billy is a jovial person, fun person. Ever a smile. Is like from mi born until now mi know him,” Wilson said.
As they chatted to The Times, a biker came up on one of those racing bikes with amplified sound and everything big and gave his own tribute to Billy and someone said Billy had been good with the bikes too.
Now the Honda Accord is silent and unmoving and they are preparing to bury the man who loved it and died in it.
