The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Staff Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

GEORGE Bastian, 56, was on his way home from the Fish Fry in Eight Mile Rock when he was killed in a traffic accident over the weekend.

Taneka Gray-Stuart said her fiancé, the father of their 12-year-old daughter, was on his way back from getting them something to eat when his vehicle collided with a utility pole. He was ejected from the backseat. Two other male occupants were injured. At least one of them remains in hospital.

This is the second Eight Mile Rock traffic fatality in three weeks.

Ms Stuart said her fiancé, “Gerry”, was the father of seven children. The pair were a couple for 18 years and lived together in Hanna Hill, Eight Mile Rock.

“He was a nice person, and he loved his daughter, and all his children,” she said.

When she received a call that her fiancé was in a bad accident, she did not believe the news of his death.

She said their daughter is not taking her father’s death well.

“He grew her up from baby,” she said, adding they had a close bond. Her older daughter, Tamara Knowles, said the news was devastating. “Gerry was a good person, and it was just shocking. I still can’t believe it. I am in disbelief because I never thought something like that would happen,” she said.

Officials believe speed may have been a contributing factor.

According to police reports, the accident happened shortly after midnight on April 13, involving a blue Cube occupied by three men. The vehicle was travelling east on Bayshore Road when the driver reportedly lost control of it and crashed into a utility pole.