Car Crash Kills 4 - Injures 5 (Yale DKE's)

[RUgreek]

Got this off of The Chronicle. Sad New Year for DKE.

http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/01/2003012006n.htm

Four Yale University students died after their sport-utility vehicle hit a jackknifed tractor-trailer rig before dawn Friday on a snowy interstate highway. They were among nine students who were traveling in the vehicle as it returned from a fraternity event in New York.

According to a university statement, three of the students -- Kyle Burnat, Andrew Dwyer, and Sean Fenton -- died on Friday. The fourth student, Nicholas Grass, died on Saturday at a hospital near the scene of the accident, which occurred on Interstate 95 on the border between Fairfield and Bridgeport, Conn.

Two of the other five students in the vehicle at the time of the accident, Brett Smith and Eric Wenzel, were in critical condition on Sunday, and a third, Zachary Bradley, remained under observation at the hospital. Cameron Fine and Christopher Gary were discharged from the hospital on Sunday.

The nine students were returning from a fraternity event in New York at about 5 a.m. while it was still dark when their vehicle slammed into a tractor-trailer that had lost control on the icy roadway and crossed into oncoming traffic. Three other vehicles were involved in the accident, but none of the occupants of those vehicles was seriously injured.

There were no reports on whether alcohol or other substances were involved. The crash is still being investigated.

All nine students were members or pledges of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Most of them were players on the university's baseball and football teams.

The university canceled home athletic events on Friday, and instead held a memorial service in the gymnasium on Friday night.

In a statement about the accident, university officials said they planned to offer counseling services to all students. "I know I speak for all of us when I express my profound grief and sadness at these tragic events and pray for the injured to make a full and speedy recovery," Linda Koch Lorimer, secretary of the university, said in the statement.