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Man made valiant effort to help Fabian victims

A man, who may have been the last person to see the four victims of Hurricane Fabian alive, said he has trouble sleeping since that fateful day and wonders if there was anything more that he could have done to save them.

Campbell Burrows, 29, of Spanish Point, spoke to the victims just moments before the winds and storm surge swept them from the Causeway.

While the body of Police Constable Stephen Symons, 37, was pulled from the North Shore waters on Sunday, a Police search team was still hoping to recover the bodies of Police Constable Nicole O'Connor, duty station officer Gladys Saunders and civilian Manuel Pacheco.

All four were swept from the Causeway on Friday afternoon as Hurricane Fabian lashed the Island with torrential showers and winds topping 150 miles per hour.

Mr. Burrows told The Royal Gazette he was driving across the Causeway shortly before the tragedy and spotted both cars with their passengers still inside.

"I was trying to get home after helping a friend in St. George's. The conditions were unbelievable," Mr. Burrows said. "It was like driving through a car wash. I could hardly see."

As he made away over the bridge, the married man said he approached a stalled, marked Police car with three passengers inside.

"I wound my window down just a touch so that I could ask them if they were okay. The lady in the back (Saunders) was putting on her rain jacket and it looked like she was going to get out of the car.

"I motioned to them that I would take them across but the driver (believed to be Symons) indicated that they were OK and it looked like he was telling them to stay put.

"Because the weather was the way it was, I gave them the thumbs up signal and continued on my way."

Mr. Burrows said, at that moment, the walls of the Causeway were still intact.

And then, approximately 600 feet away, he encountered Mr. Pacheco in his stalled Charade. Again, Mr. Burrows said, he stopped and offered his assistance - and again the offer was declined.

"I really tried to get him (Pacheco) to come with me but he kept saying he was okay.

"When I realised that he was serious about not coming with me, I drove off because I knew I should not have been out in that weather in the first place," Mr. Burrows told The Royal Gazette.

Mr. Burrows made it home safely, but was surprised and horrified to learn later that the four were missing.

"I feel so bad. I've had a hard time sleeping because I wished I could have made them get in my car. All I can think about it is them being out in that ocean somewhere."