Fatal Accident Claims 1 Life; Building Contractor Survives

Nelson Ayuso

Police were called out to the scene of an accident on the George Price Highway where a man was killed and another escaped the deadly wreck. Two well-known men, contractor Imer Hernandez was behind the wheel and Nelson Ayuso was in the passenger seat of a truck, when Hernandez lost control of his pick-up truck and went flying off the highway, killing Ayuso. Reporter Andrea Polanco tells us more about the popular personality that was Ayuso.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Forty-one-year-old Nelson Ayuso was killed in a road traffic accident on Tuesday night. He was travelling in the front passenger seat in this pick-up truck when it ran off the road and overturned between miles fifty-five and fifty-six between Ontario and Blackman Eddy on the George Price Highway. The vehicle landed in a drain and crashed into some rocks.  Building contractor Imer Hernandez was driving the vehicle when he lost control and crashed. He sustained only minor injuries. Ayuso’s death comes as a shock to his close friend Paula Ack. She says he had many dreams to accomplish.

Paula Ack, Close Friend of Deceased

“This morning when I got to find out the news, I was shocked. How he died, that was the first thing I said. I knew he was not sick.  He was a very talented guy. He was into screen printing. The plans – many days he used to tell me about the things he wanted to do, so I knew when I heard today that he had passed away that there were many plans that he had. It is a pit that he died this way, so young. So, for us at the United Democratic Party and the people who get to know Nelson, it is a great loss for us and we are mourning his death.”

Nelson, who owns a screen-printing business, is well known. He is a strong and loyal supporter of the United Democratic Party. The wider public also got to know Ayuso for his comedic roles in TV commercials such as the PIKOT ads and Mek Mi Rich episodes.

Paula Ack

“We were very good friends, even from when the U.D.P. was in opposition; from that time we were very good friends. So, I can tell you it is way back that I have known him.  Personally knowing him, when we were walking on the campaign trail, he was a political animal. That is how I knew him. People did see a bit of the human that he was; the comic side of him. The ads he used to, like the PIKOT ads when he used to order the food but that was a part of him.”

Ayuso is described as an easy going guy with a big personality. He was always friendly and out-going.

Paula Ack

Paula Ack

“He was always bubbly. There was never a dull moment when you were with him. He was full of life.  In fact, just this morning when I was doing my show I even said when Nelson was on a diet, he used to say that when he was on diet, it was ten dollars tacos and over. That was a diet for him and I used to tell him, ‘Nelson, ten dollars? Oh my God!’  And he would say no, you nuh see that I have to keep this sexy body. So, this was the type of person he was.  My condolences to his common-law wife, his daughter, his family in Orange Walk; the Martinez and Ayuso families. The extended family that he has throughout the years, friends that he made that became family to him. Because for him, we were never like just friends, we were like family.”

Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.