By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

A FATAL car crash that killed three young men has highlighted the weak quality of emergency services in Long Island and other Family Island communities, with the mother of one of the young men saying the families are incensed at how authorities responded to the crash.

 Mandie Constantakis, 20, Trevon Roxbury, 18, and Manoli Constantakis, 18, were two minutes from home when their Nissan Infinity crashed into a residence in the settlement of Mangrove Bush around 9pm on Friday, rocking the small island community and sparking a flurry of tributes from around the country.

 While Roxbury and Mandie were pronounced dead on the scene, Manoli was airlifted to New Providence where he later died from his injuries.

 His mother, Amber Constantakis, said doctors in New Providence told her Manoli could have survived if he had been brought in sooner.

 She said it took police and the doctor on the island more than an hour just to reach the scene of the crash and it took the nurse about an hour to get there.

 She said: “(The police) didn’t want anyone to take them out of the car but my husband, he heard a sound, so he grabbed my son––his back and butt were like half way out the window––so he yucked him out and started to make him alert or whatever and by the time as they took him to the clinic I had already had my clearance from my insurance company for (an) air ambulance.

 “They couldn’t leave until the doctor on Long Island gave the okay to say yes he needs this air ambulance. The doctor, she took over two and a half or maybe three hours to get to the clinic to attend to my son. My best friend who is a physician in Nassau was on the phone advising the nurses at the clinic what to do to my son to keep him alive.”

 Mrs Constantakis said the air ambulance arrived to transport her son about five hours after the crash. She said although her son’s COVID-19 test was negative, officials were determined to carry him in an ISO chamber used to transport suspected COVID-19 patients.

 “He had internal bleeding, he was hurting everywhere, he was traumatised, he was in and out of consciousness and they had him on the ground, on the floor at the airport trying to put him in this bag for over an hour and a half,” she said. “The doctors in Nassau said if he would’ve came to that emergency room even two or one hours earlier he might have made it because his injuries weren’t that severe, he just had a lacerated spleen and his liver was lacerated but the problem was when they put him in that bag, he started to holler and he panicked and got claustrophobic and the doctor said he wanted to get out and he ripped out his two IVs that were giving him fluids. It was all because of that stupid bag and I don’t see why the government have that policy in place.”

 Mrs Constantakis said her son, their only child, was a loving, high-spirited man and the life of the party.

 Cousins Manoli and Mandi were inseparable and were close “from birth,” she said. The two shared a love for fishing and talked openly about someday taking over the family’s fishing business, Constantakis Sea Enterprises.

“He and Mandi used to pick up products when the big boats come in,” Mrs Constantakis said. “They said they were practising and learning the business so that when their dad retired Mandi was gonna be the guy that did the paperwork; Manoli was gonna fish but still do the lifting. They had it all planned out, with how they were going to take the load off their dad.”

 According to Mrs Constantakis, Manoli and Trevon were classmates from primary school until the tenth grade when Manoli left to pursue his career in fishing. The two were always close, she said, and the three men enjoyed hunting and fishing together.

 Long Island MP Adrian Gibson released a statement over the weekend about the deaths.

 “The untimely and sudden deaths of these young men, who were all so very full of life, has sent shock waves throughout our island,” Mr Gibson said.

 “This is an unprecedented tragedy and our thoughts are with their families in this difficult time. . .I spoke to the parents of all of the young men and expressed support and heartfelt condolences on behalf of myself, my family and the people of Long Island.”