Eight members of New York City's Stuyvesant High School track team and their coach were taken to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, one by helicopter, after their van ran into the median on Interstate 91 just south of Hartford, Vt., on Saturday. The group was traveling to Hanover for the Dartmouth Relays, a three-day track event for college and high school students hosted by the College.
The victim flown to the hospital was left paralyzed by the accident, according to The Valley News, although it has not been confirmed whether the paralysis is permanent. Two Stuyvesant juniors, Valerie Piro and Lucia Hsiao, and assistant coach Erin Taylor, who was driving the van, remain hospitalized as of Monday, according to an announcement posted on the Parents' Association of Stuveysant High School website. The six other athletes have been released from DHMC.
"After something like that happens, your mind just jumps immediately to the worst," said Allen Zhang '10, a former member of the Stuyvesant track team in an e-mail. "It was a big sigh of relief for all of us when we found out that most of the girls were released from the hospital, and those that suffered worse injuries had been released from the [intensive care unit]."
Zhang and former teammate Maisie Breit '10 visited Piro at DHMC on Sunday, and she seemed "very positive," Zhang said.
"She was cracking jokes and all," Zhang said. "What's making her feel miserable isn't the whole getting into an accident thing but instead the fact that she caught a cold the day before she came up to Dartmouth."
The Stuyvesant track team has continued with its regular season, according to team member and senior at Stuyvesant Tiffany Chang.
"[The accident] has affected our lives a lot, and I'd hate to say it, but it's really brought our team a lot closer together," Chang, said in an instant-message conversation with the Dartmouth. About twenty team members convened to call Piro and Hsiao on Sunday, she said.
The Vermont State Police is currently investigating the cause of accident.
The incident occurred around three o'clock Saturday when the Ford E350 van carrying the team drove into a median, causing the vehicle to roll, according to a statement by Vermont State Police.
The accident left the driver and several passengers trapped. Although the Hartford Fire Department arrived at the scene three minutes after being dispatched, extrication of the victims took longer than 40 minutes, Hartford Fire Department Lt. Chris Dube said.
All of the victims were conscious when the Hartford Fire Department arrived, Dube said.
"We secured the vehicle first [then] we had to free three occupants who were trapped in the wreckage, including the driver." Hartford Fire Capt. Ray Bushey said in an interview with the Associated Press. "Because of the size of the vehicle, it was a difficult extrication."
When the authorities arrived at the scene, a number of bystanders were propping up the van to keep it from rolling, according to The Valley News. The van was then tied with a rope to a tree to stabilize it.
The accident caused an hour-long shutdown of all I-91 southbound traffic, Dube said. Hanover, Lebanon and Hartford Fire Departments responded to the incident, along with the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Advanced Response Team and the Vermont State Police.
The Hartford Fire Department responds to between 50 and 75 vehicle accidents per year in the section of the interstate where the accident occurred, Dube said. Of all the accidents the fire department responds to annually, only one or two require air transport, he added.
New York's Stuyvesant High School has matriculated about twenty students per class to Dartmouth in recent years.
William Schpero/The Dartmouth Staff contributed to this report.
