Driver’s Ed Crash Kills Three Teens In Upstate New York–What Went Wrong?
A tragic driver’s ed crash left three teens dead, but what happened in what should have been a normal run, such as countless others that happen all over the country every day?
According to the New York Daily News, an upstate New York driver’s ed lesson turned into a deadly tragedy, and has claimed a third teenager’s life Wednesday night. The accident happened Tuesday, when the driver, 16-year-old Claudia Krebs, pulled into an intersection with a flashing red light on a rural route in Warwick, New York, and was broadsided, police said.
Unfortunately, the truck driver had no time to react, and couldn’t stop to prevent the accident. As the quiet town gathers to mourn, many questions remain about how something like this could have happened.
Lucas O’Connor, 16, died Wednesday from injuries suffered in the driver’s ed crash Tuesday. He was one of five people inside a 2007 Chevrolet Malibu operated by Decat Driving School.
All students were participating in Goshen High School’s summer driver’s ed program. Antonio Baglivo and Paul VanDoran, both 16, were killed in the accident, along with O’Connor. Krebs was released from the hospital on Wednesday, and police have yet to interview her.
The driver’s ed instructor, 60-year-old Julio Anglero, was “actively engaged” with his students when the crash happened, Warwick police Lt. Tom Maslanka told the Herald-Record. He escaped serious injury and was released from the hospital, as well.
Truck driver August Harlacher, 61, had the right of way and couldn’t stop in time, according to police. He was treated for non-life threatening injuries at a nearby hospital.
“Unfortunately, this isn’t our first fatality at that intersection,” Maslanka said.
Nearly 500 people turned out for a candlelight vigil in support of the victims of the driver’s ed crash. Less than two hours prior to the start of the ceremony, school officials learned of O’Connor’s death.
“Something life-transforming has happened to us,” Goshen schools Superintendent Dan Connor said. “Ordinary words fail us. Yet it is impossible to remain mute.”
The grief was so heartfelt that twice during the vigil, people collapsed. One was a teenager, and the other was Antonio Baglivo’s mother, according to Baglivo’s uncle, John Fixsen, who, along with his wife, Barbara, had cared for the teen for the last three years. Antonio was a football player and had dreams of joining the school’s varsity team.
“We moved him out of the city to keep him safe,” Fixsen said of the Baglivo, who was to begin his junior year. “This should never have happened.”
As for the rest of the driver’s ed crash victims, VanDoran, a senior, was on the ski club and stage crew, Connor said. O’Connor was a junior in the varsity track and cross-country team, as well as being a member of the ski club, Science Olympiad, and the Dungeons and Dragons Club. Krebs — a Class of 2016 student government representative — is described as “a golden heart” by Rabbi Meir Borenstein of the Chabad Center in Goshen.
[Images via WCBS]
