A Rocky Hill High School honor student is dead and 17 others were injured when a school bus carrying a group from a Hartford magnet school collided with another vehicle on Interstate 84 Saturday and went down an embankment.
State Police said the crash happened just after 8:00 a.m. on the westbound side of the highway between exits 46 and 45 in Hartford, when the bus and a station wagon collided.
The bus was carrying 16 students and two adults when it went over the guardrail, crashed down an embankment and stopped under the highway. The group was on their way to a robotics competition at Farmington High School.
Town and school officials identified the deceased as 16-year-old Vikas Parikh of Rocky Hill.
Rocky Hill Mayor Anthony LaRosa described Parikh, who was a junior at the Greater Hartford Academy of Mathematics and Science and an honor student at Rocky Hill High School as one of the school's "best and brightest."
"This is a terrible, terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to the families whose loved ones were injured and especially to the one who lost a child," said LaRosa Saturday night.
LaRosa said he has been in contact with a close friend of the Parikh family and that the town is offering their assistance to the family and access to grief counselors.
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Connecticut Children's Medical Center tells NBC Connecticut that it took in six of the patients from the accident. Five were treated and released. One student is in serious condition. The victims range in age from 13 to 18, hospital officials said.
Four other passengers were taken to Hartford Hospital. A spokesperson said that three of them were listed in good condition and expected to be released soon. The condition of the fourth person is unknown.
One student was also transported to the University of Connecticut Medical Center. That student was treated and released into their parents' custody, a hospital spokesperson said.
The remaining six passengers, including a teacher, were transported to St. Francis Hospital. Their conditions are unknown at this time.
State Police closed all lanes of I-84 westbound at exit 46 for several hours Saturday to investigate the crash.
The driver of the other vehicle involved, a 2007 Volvo station wagon, has been identified as a 16-year-old from Glastonbury. He was not injured in the crash according to a State Police report released Sunday.
Bruce E. Douglas, Ph.D., is the executive director of the Capitol Region Education Council, the agency that runs the Greater Hartford Academy for Mathematics and Science. He issued the following statement:
We are saddened to confirm that a student from the Greater Hartford Academy of Mathematics and Science was fatally injured this morning during a very serious accident on I-84 west. A bus driver, a teacher and 15 students from GHAMAS were also injured.
Our hearts, and the hearts of every educator and parent goes out to his parents, his family, his community in Rocky Hill, students and faculty of the Greater Hartford Academy of Math and Science, and the entire CREC community. They will all be in our prayers. This kind of incomprehensible tragedy is always on our minds. It is something we work tirelessly to prevent.
Counselors are being made immediately available at the Learning Corridor starting this weekend for students and faculty members.
