EXCLUSIVE: V.I. Free Press Obtains Photo of Car Crash Victim Angel Espinosa

FREDERIKSTED — The Virgin Islands Free Press has obtained a photo of the St. Croix man who died tragically in a single car accident on the Melvin Evans Highway early Saturday.

Friends and family members wanted to pay tribute to the life of 34-year-old Angel Espinosa who died after the sedan he was driving hit a utility pole on the Melvin H. Evans Highway near East Airport Road.

REST IN PEACE: Angel Espinosa,34, of St. Croix.

A concerned citizen told the 911 Emergency Call Center at 2:37 a.m. Saturday that a one vehicle auto accident happened on the Melvin H. Evans Highway near East Airport Road, the Virgin Islands Police Department said.

“The caller stated that there was a man trapped inside the vehicle,’ VIPD Communications Director Glen Dratte said. “The dispatcher notified V.I.P.D, Rescue, Fire, and EMS.

The preliminary investigation revealed that a white 1997 Ford Escort was traveling from East to West on the Melvin H. Evans Highway at a high rate of speed, according to Dratte.

As the vehicle approached the intersection at Melvin H. Evans and East Airport Road the driver lost control of his vehicle, veered off the roadway and crashed into the utility pole on the southwestern shoulder of the roadway, police said.

“The pole was deeply embedded inside the vehicle from the impact,” the police spokesman said. “The driver was wearing his seatbelt.”  

The Emergency Medical Technicians did not detect any vital signs from Espinosa, the VIPD said.

Espinosa succumbed to his injuries sustained because of the crash, according to the VIPD.

This case has been assigned to the Traffic Investigation Bureau and remains open and under investigation. 

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John F. McCarthy is a veteran journalist in the Caribbean, writing from the "Decision Space" where survival meets the surreal. His reporting steel was tempered by a lineage of legendary editors and broadcasters, including Ed Wynn Brant (The Bomb), Owen Eschenroder (Ann Arbor News), Lynelle Emanuel (BVI Beacon), and Charles Thanas (WSVI-TV). Alongside longtime colleague Kenneth C. "Casey" Clark, McCarthy has navigated the front lines of the territory’s history—from the 1997 volcanic "snow" to every major hurricane since Hugo. Known for leaning out of doorless helicopters to capture the "money shot," McCarthy now edits the V.I. Free Press, providing the essential link between the island's colonial past and its SpaceX future.