Many in the community awoke on the morning of Wednesday, 29 March, to the news of the death of Daniel McFarlane, a 23-year-old cyclist who was killed in a hit-and-run collision the night before.
It was the second fatal hit-and-run this month.
The death of McFarlane, father of a 3-year-old son, has left his family in a state of disbelief and grief.
“My heart is broken, my other family members’ hearts are broken, it has been truly crippling for us all,” his sister Daniella McFarlane, 21.
“When we were younger, we were inseparable, like Jack and Jill,” she said. “We were always getting into trouble together, or trying to build a tree-house, and we actually did build a few.
“Now we are grown up and that has translated into more positive conversations when we meet up.”
Daniel and Daniella have seven other siblings, and, of all their other brothers and sisters, she says they were polar opposites but that only helped to strengthen their bond.
“He was more of a hands-on kind of person and he would come to me to do the more administrative stuff,” she said. “In fact, you could say that, although he was my older brother, in a way, I was his older sister.
“He was skinny, I was thicker, and his pet name for me was ‘Chubby’, and it stuck. Now I would give anything to hear him call me Chubby one more time.”
She recalls being awoken by a phone call from a close friend who delivered the earthshattering news about an hour after the collision, which prompted her and her mother to rush to the hospital.
“It was so unreal because he was involved in a bike accident several years ago that left him in the hospital for a week with bleeding in his brain, but he pulled through,” she said. “On our way to the hospital, we were singing hymns and praying, trying to remain hopeful, but by the time we got there, we were too late.”
She said the doctors were able to restart her brother’s heart, but he never regained consciousness, so there was no chance for a final goodbye.
“This accident didn’t just take away my brother, it took away my mother’s son, a cousin and friend that was loved by many in the community,” she said.
During these difficult times, she said, she has found strength in the outpouring of support from the community.
“My phone has been blowing up all night, text and WhatsApp messages and calls from so many people, even people I don’t know,” she said. “We are so grateful for this love and it just goes to show that he was really loved throughout the community.”
But her brother’s death is made all worse because he leaves behind a toddler.
“We haven’t told him yet, but how do you tell a 3-year-old your father is not coming home, and you will never see him again?”
McFarlane died after being struck while riding his bicycle at around 9:30pm along Frank Sound Road, near Botanic Road, in North Side. Another cyclist riding alongside him was also struck and was taken to the Cayman Islands Hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries and was later discharged.
The driver, a 47-year-old North Side man, was later arrested by police on suspicion of leaving the scene of an accident and causing death by careless driving.
“I don’t really live with any form of hate, but I wish he would’ve stopped and checked,” Daniella said. “All I’ve been thinking about is, if the driver had stopped, could that have made a difference, could he have given a little bit of help, or even comfort?”
Her brother’s death comes three weeks after another hit-and-run collision on the other side of the island.
Italian waiter Abele Hiwet, 38, died when his electric bike was struck by an oncoming vehicle on 8 March. The driver fled the scene but was subsequently arrested and charged with a string of offences.
A female cyclist was also left hospitalised after a hit-and-run on the Esterley Tibbetts Highway near the Kimpton hotel in November last year.
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