died in a horror weekend road accident.

Nursing aide Sue Mills -- a mother-of-two -- and orderly David Alves were both killed after the bike they were travelling on was involved in a head-on crash with a car on a sharp left-hand bend in Somerset Road, Somerset.

The two were thrown from the bike and both suffered serious injuries.

They were rushed to the King Edward Memorial VII Hospital but pronounced dead shortly after arrival. The 36-year-old driver of the car is believed to have escaped injury.

Yesterday, staff at the Packwood Home in Somerset were in shock after being told of the double death.

Nursing home head Cecille Simmons said: "We are all very upset here -- they were both very good workers and very caring people.

"We are a small facility and so everyone works very closely with one another.

It's a terrible shock.'' She added that professional counselling had been offered to employees and that off-duty staff came in to work yesterday to comfort grieving colleagues.

Lady Jackie Swan, chairman of the Packwood board of trustees, said Mrs. Mills, originally from England and married to a Bermudian, had started work at the home three years ago and only recently completed the Bermuda College geriatric aide course.

Lady Swan added: "We were very proud of her. She was a wonderful young woman and very good with the residents. You need caring people to deal with the elderly. The staff are devastated at this loss.'' She added that Mr. Alves, although on call at Packwood, was an employee of the King Edward Memorial VII Hospital.

But she said: "I do understand he was very, very good with the residents and a very good worker. It's such a shock. We don't employ a whole lot of people and to lose two of them is awful.'' "We are very sorry for both their families. It's a very difficult time and our sympathy goes out to them.'' Mrs. Mills, 38, of Simmons Lane, Sandys, and Mr. Alves, 32, a single man of Vaucrossons Crescent, Pembroke, died around midnight on Saturday.

A Police spokesman said the two were travelling south on Somerset Road near the junction with West Side Road when the accident happened.

The Suzuki Address cycle is understood to have been owned by Mr. Alves, but it has not yet been established who was driving.

The Police spokesman added: "The scooter was in the process of negotiating a bend when they were in a head-on collision with a Lancia hatchback which was travelling in the opposite direction.'' It is understood the driver of a white taxi which was in the area at the time of the accident has come forward, but Police have appealed for any other witnesses to contact PC Sean Mullan at Somerset Police station, telephone 234-1010.

The double tragedy takes the death toll on Bermuda's roads this year to six.

Candystriper Zeita Matthews, 16, died on June 21 after suffering severe head injuries nearly a fortnight before when her cycle was involved in a head-on collision with another cycle on South Road, Paget, near the Coral Beach and Tennis Club.

On March 11, Larry Burgess, 41, was killed when he drove his motorcycle over a 24-foot high embankment and landed on a concrete patio at Glenwood Park Crescent, Warwick.

And on February 22, two men who died after separate accidents became the first two deaths of the year.

American Airlines ground steward Kenneth (Bitsy) Perinchief, 25, was killed when his cycle collided with a wall on the Causeway, St. George's, as he travelled to work.

And taxi driver and musician Leon Pike died in hospital of injuries suffered when his car hit a wall on Middle Road, Devonshire, a few days earlier.