Last March a van full of Connecticut College students set out from New London at 3:30 a.m. for a medical missions trip to Uganda. They were 8 miles into their ride to Logan Airport when a man who later admitted to drinking at Mohegan Sun Casino plowed head-on into them, killing a 20-year-old premed student who had organized the trip. This week Jim Hummel speaks exclusively with a student from Barrington who was in the van. She talks publicly for the first time about how the aftermath of the crash has affected her life, about drinking policies at the casino and Twin River’s recent decision to extend gaming to 24 hours a day here in Rhode Island.
Script:
It happened in the middle of the night, as most drunk driving accidents do.
A car travelling the wrong way on Route 395 last March plowed into a van full of Connecticut College students who had just left New London for Logan Airport and a medical missions trip to Uganda.
The aftermath of the wreck captured that morning by WFSB in Hartford,
The accident killed Elizabeth Durante, a 20-year-old pre-med major who had been to Africa twice before and who organized the trip.
``I still think about it every day.’’
Jessica Gordon of Barrington was the first to reach Durante. For nearly nine months the Connecticut College senior has been dealing with what happened and not spoken publicly about the crash - until now.
Gordon: ``…tried to wake her up, unresponsive…like.nothing…so which is I mean good. I know she didn’t die instantly, but at least she wasn’t conscious for it.’’
The driver of the car, Dan Musser, told police he had had four or five drinks at the Mohegan Sun casino before getting into his Honda Accord and driving onto 395 in the wrong direction. The Connecticut College students had travelled a total of 8 miles - Musser just a few minutes - when the vehicles collided at 3-40 a.m.
Gordon, a neuroscience major at Conn College says the accident has haunted her. It has forced her to put off taking med school entrance exams. She avoids driving the stretch of 395 where the accident happened. She has flashbacks to the accident and difficulty sleeping or sometimes driving at night..
Gordon is a 2006 graduate of Barrington High School, where she was active in the school’s Student Against Drunk Driving chapter.
``It is ironic especially that we were all going on a medical trip and it didn’t necessarily have to do with alcohol and drinking and driving, but we were all doing the right thing and trying to make a good difference and to have something like this happen to stop us. We were all concerned about getting our shots and immunizations and the civil war there…we weren’t concerned about will we get to the airport?’’ Gordon said
At the time of the accident Connecticut was considering a proposal to allow the serving of alcohol 24 hours a day at Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, which are open for gambling around the clock – all in an effort to boost sagging state revenues. Durante’s death put a quick end to the idea.
Jim Hummel: ``Jessica Gordon says she wonders what will happen here at Twin River in Lincoln, which just a few weeks ago began 24-hour gambling. A spokeswoman for the video slot parlor says there are no plans – right now – to try and extend drinking to 24 hours. But this is a facility that has had a host of special exceptions carved out for it by the state over the years.’’
``We have more drunk driving fatalities in our state every year, than the homicide numbers,’’ said Gabrielle Abbate, who heads Rhode Island’s chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and has known Jessica Gordon since her high schooldays. Abbate says she’s concerned about the new extended hours at Twin River, which are being advertised on new high-tech billboards along major highways.
``Just look at the stats. The vast majority across the country, let alone our state of drunk driving fatalities happens in the wee hours of the morning so yeah, I’m concerned. I mean we’re not prohibitionists we’re not anti-business at all, but until we know our state is set up to handle that type of behavior and drug control., because it is a drug. And it causes a lot of havoc on the roads.’’
``I understand more hours means more money and more gambling and people drinking later and making poorer decisions for their pockets and better for the casino more revenue, but I just don’t see how it’s a good think to have people out later on the roads with alcohol….JH: because we see what happened in your case. JG: And I’m not the only one…far from the only one.’’