City man succumbs to injuries from accident
Family, friends mourn 41-year-old Ricky Unwin
WOONSOCKET –A morning commute motor vehicle accident on Route 146 in Uxbridge on Tuesday is reported to have claimed the life of a 41-year-old city man, Ricky Unwin, of Oregon Avenue.
Unwin was seriously hurt when the 2006 Nissan pick-up truck he was driving north on the highway at about 8:56 a.m. Tuesday crossed from the high speed lane to the right and continued off the roadway before hitting a tree head-on in the single vehicle crash, according to Massachusetts State Police reports. He was reported to be the sole of occupant of the Nissan.
State Trooper Paul Sullivan, an agency spokesman with the Office of Public Relations in Framingham, said Uxbridge firefighters and emergency medical services personnel responded to the accident scene north of Exit 2 and before Exit 3 and transported the victim to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center Lakeside in Worcester.
Sullivan did not have further information on Unwin’s condition on Wednesday and noted that the accident remained under investigation by Trooper Peter English.
News of Unwin’s serious injury in the accident began to
circulate in the city Wednesday afternoon and additional information on his condition was not available from the hospital late Wednesday.
A representative of the family later posted a statement on Facebook announcing a decision had been made to take Unwin off life support and thanking all of his friends voicing condolences for their support.
The postings from his friends stated shock and sadness over the loss of Unwin and offered many thoughts and remembrances to his family.
One of his friends offered that he wished he could sit down with Unwin one more time “in the barber chair” and talk about life and their children.
Another described Unwin as a “great man who was passionate about his family and a good friend to many.”
Yet another friend wrote that “Heaven gained an Angel too soon,” in his posting.
Ricky Unwin was the husband of Jillian Minutelli Unwin and father of sons, Jarrek and Caden. Unwin was a SPD technician in sterile processing at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, according to his work profile, and had been a former lead SPD Technician at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence and also working formerly in biotechnology for Amgen and Lancaster Laboratories. He was a Villa Novan athlete for Woonsocket High School and drew many condolences from the Villa Novan community on Wednesday.
A Gofundme online fundraising campaign was established by friends of the Unwin family to raise money for expenswww.gofundme.com/please-supportes: ricky-unwins-family