Ten years ago you would be more likely to find Desai Jones speeding along Palmetto Road than sitting across from a reporter in an interview.

Mr. Jones was one of the senior pack racers — a group that would need little more than a call for "Palm" after a night at Clay House or the 'restaurants' to meet and race.

Once lined up on the road the racers would reach top speeds of 80 mph or higher.

Races could also be as impromptu as racing to Sandys Secondary School in the morning or while visiting a friend in another parish.

But it was one final race — when his cousin desperately tried to get to the start of a race and he collided with another motorcyclist and died — that changed Mr. Jones' life.

He said: "I was supposed to be meeting him at a party and I was looking for him and I was anxious. On the radio we heard a guy had gotten into an accident.

"It's weird. You don't hear nothing. It felt like it was dead still like a desert with vultures swirling around. I almost lost my mind. That's what really motivated me.

"The sad part about it is it took somebody close to me dying to realise and we cannot afford to lose more lives...

"I stopped pack racing. It was like being addicted to a drug, but the first thing that comes to my mind is my five sons."

Since then and with maturity that comes with his years, Mr. Jones, now 34, is ready to speak out and encourage others not to follow in his footsteps.

Furthering Mr. Jones' cause have been the eight deaths in two months that leave him concerned he might be partly to blame, although there have been no official rulings in the causes of the eight fatal road accidents this year as families wait to hear what has happened to their loved ones.

One of those who is waiting is Kim Ellis, the widow of David Ellis who was 36 when he was found in the early hours of April 3 on the ground at Tween Walls, Sandys. Yesterday, a man appeared in Magistrates' Court charged in connection with his death.

Mrs. Ellis said: "It's adjusting to God's plan and eventually it will work out. You cannot be isolated. You feel like you are the only person feeling this way.

"Don't let it keep you paralysed. I send our prayers to the other families that are going through this. I will keep them in my prayers.

"My message is: It's not just about you. It's about other people on the road. That's somebody's father, brother, somebody's son, someone's mother or daughter.

"People are our most valued resources. It's not cars or bikes it's people. When you get into an accident it might not just be you who gets hurt.

"The power and control is in our hands to change it. Those eight people that are no longer with us have different families and other people in the community.

"And just like I am going through my grief, there are other people who are experiencing the loss."

Mr. Jones added that he regrets the lack of responsibility and lack of fear of consequences which marked his pack-racing years.

Though his racing and uncontrolled driving never landed him in the intensive care unit, it did throw him through the windshield of a car scaring the elderly driver and passenger.

"I was riding fast observing a female walking on the sidewalk and then I was changing gears on somebody's car," he said,

"The elderly people in the car were more concerned about me then I was. I was thinking: 'I didn't mess up my bike?'

"My materialistic side was more important then my life. But I was never put in ICU and never broke bones. That self-confidence grew into arrogance.

"I was charged in court, but I never suffered the consequences. My nana would bail me out and others would have a little extra cash that they would give me.

"I never 100 percent had to live up to things. Over the years, no matter where I go, older people, my age or younger people they remind me about when I did this.

"What has really made me come forward is these recent deaths. I think that being a person that's lived with it, what I have to share will be more effective to the youth and the community. I am not a doctor.

"I didn't study this, I lived it. The Police presence is a positive deterrent. Seeing a presence right outside a club might make you stop and think before you get too intoxicated.

"Just thinking like that is a positive alternative. That could save a life. If they've got to be paid more, then pay them more. It can only save lives."

While Mr. Jones thinks more could be done in the community to change people's actions, he is also doing his part.

He's now speaking out and taking responsibility for his actions so long ago that he claims may continue to influence the future generations.

Mr. Jones added: "Even when I lost brethren or other pack racers, even then you still think you are invincible. You start thinking: I would have done it this way...

"It's very childish. So really the community needs to grow up."