CHRISTIANSTED — Two men are dead in a single-car accident on St. Croix after their vehicle lost control in a turn, striking a wall before impacting a large boulder and bursting into flames near the main building at Limetree Bay Refinery in Estate Hope.
Bernard Matthew, 28, was driving a white Toyota Yaris and passing vehicles in the straightaway near the South Shore oil refinery when the car crashed into the wall and some rock boulders near Limetree Bay’s administrative building about 11:38 p.m. on Friday, the Virgin Islands Police Department said.
The force of the collision caused the car to overturn and left Matthew and his passenger, 28-year-old Derrick Liburd, trapped inside the vehicle as it caught on fire, according to the VIPD.
VIPD’s Traffic Division, firefighters from the Virgin Islands Fire Service and EMTs responded only to find Matthew and Liburd burned to death, VIPD spokesman Glen Dratte said.
A preliminary police investigation revealed that Matthew’s Yaris was traveling at a high rate of speed westbound on the Hess Road passing vehicles when he lost control in the turn by the main Limetree building “impacting the wall then the large boulders causing the vehicle to flip and catch on fire,” according to Dratte.
Matthew and Liburd’s bodies were identified by next of kin.
