Police are investigating the cause of a car accident that killed two women and injured a third this week when their vehicle crashed into a tree on the Kennedy family’s private estate in Aquinnah.

The driver of the vehicle, 70-year-old Judith Morse of West Tisbury, and front-seat passenger Susan S. Lambard, 69, of Lyman, N.H., were rushed to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital just after noon on Tuesday, where they were pronounced dead. The rear-seat passenger, 68-year-old Susan Papanicolaou of Minneapolis, sustained minor injuries.

State fisheries officials have warned Vineyard conch fishermen that if significant conservation measures aren’t taken soon, the Island’s biggest fishery will collapse and be difficult to restore. After meeting last Friday with the state officials, a number of local fishermen said the conch fishery is in serious trouble and the state can’t act fast enough.

As West Tisbury considers a vote to approve the sale of beer and wine in the historically dry town, it can look to the neighboring town of Tisbury, which just two years ago narrowly passed its own regulations that brought beer and wine to town restaurants following much contentious debate.

A West Tisbury woman last week killed her husband in what law enforcement officials have determined was an act of self-defense, with the incident shaking the Island community and calling into focus domestic abuse issues and resources on-Island.

The morning of March 23 Cynthia C. Bloomquist, 63, allegedly shot and killed her estranged husband, Kenneth R. Bloomquist, 64, after he broke into her home and shot her. The district attorney ruled the incident a homicide during an act of self-defense.