John McCarthy
By JOHN McCARTHY / V.I. Free Press News Reporter
FREDERIKSTED — A heavy wooden canopy outside the First Bank location in Frederiksted Town remains a single gust of wind away from a catastrophic collapse onto a public sidewalk, following a severe late-night vehicle collision earlier this week.
Despite the obvious and immediate threat to public safety, the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD) has failed to issue a public safety advisory, traffic report, or official statement regarding the incident.
Boots-on-the-ground reporting by the Virgin Islands Free Press earlier today confirmed that an errant driver plowed directly into a critical timber support beam for the bank’s sidewalk canopy. The impact was violent enough to completely pulverize the concrete base anchor at the sidewalk level, shearing the heavy wooden pillar entirely from its foundation and leaving the bottom of the timber splintered, rusted, and displaced.
Currently, the substantial overhead structure—designed to shield bank customers and pedestrians from the elements—is structurally compromised. It is effectively suspended in mid-air, held aloft only by its remaining attachments to the main building.
The location of the structural failure could not be more precarious. Sitting directly in the heart of Frederiksted Town, the compromised walkway is located immediately adjacent to the Frederiksted Cruise Ship Dock and the high-traffic Waterfront Promenade Park. On an island dependent on tourism and pedestrian commerce, a major structural liability has been left exposed in the town’s primary foot-traffic zone.
Yet, forty-eight hours after the crash, the official response from local authorities has been reduced to a few yards of yellow plastic.
VIPD “CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS” tape has been wrapped around the historic green arches and the listing wooden post. While the tape warns pedestrians away from the immediate impact zone, it offers zero structural integrity for an overhead roof that remains a ticking time bomb for anyone walking down the street or attempting to access the First Bank ATM.
The Virgin Islands Free Press reached out to VIPD leadership—including Public Information Officer Kishma Chichester, Media Relations Coordinator Sakeeda Freeman, Police Commissioner Mario Brooks, and St. Croix Police Chief Uston Cornelius—for immediate clarification on why no public safety warning was issued to the community.
As of press time, all top brass have declined to comment or account for the radio silence surrounding the public destruction of the Frederiksted town environment.
Until local authorities or bank management report for duty and physically secure the structural hazard, residents and visitors utilizing the Frederiksted waterfront are urged to exercise extreme caution and avoid the walkway entirely. Yellow tape cannot hold up a roof.
