OCHO RIOS, St Ann — Fifteen children are left fatherless, while one family mourns the loss of two brothers killed in an early morning crash outside Brown’s Town on Sunday.

Dead are Lambert Davidson, 34-year-old barber, and his younger brother Simon Davidson, a mechanic. Both men, who fathered a total of 15 children, were reportedly returning from a party when the crash occurred about 8:00 am. The other occupants of the car were hospitalised in critical condition.

Police reported that the men were among five travelling in a car heading towards Discovery Bay from Brown’s Town when the vehicle reportedly slammed into a truck. All were taken to hospital where Simon Davidson was pronounced dead. His older brother died while being treated.

When the Jamaica Observer spoke to family members yesterday, they expressed shock at the tragic death of the men.

“Nobody taking it good at all,” Kedine Miller, mother of one of Lambert’s nine children, said, adding that it was a big shock for the family to be losing two members at once. Both men were from Manchester but have been living in the Ocho Rios area for some time.

Lambert Davidson reportedly returned to the island earlier this year after spending some time in the Cayman Islands. He returned to work as a barber in Ocho Rios at a location from which he has been operating for some seven years.

When the Observer visited the shop yesterday it was closed as both men who operated from the small shop on Short Lane along Dacosta Drive were in Sunday’s accident. The second barber has since been transferred to a hospital in Kingston.

Landlord for the premises where the barbers operated, Adrin Geness, remembered Lambert as “jovial, hard-working [and] business-oriented”.

Geness said he has known the young barber for years and is also shocked by his tragic death.

“I sold Lambert his first car,” he recalled.

Simon Davidson was also remembered as a jovial person. He was the father of six children, cousin Keith Hawthorne said.

People who gathered near the barbershop on Monday said they are hoping for the recovery of the second barber in the accident, and that there are no other fatalities.

The others involved in the accident were still hospitalised yesterday.