Looking back at accidents
By Jess Hoogendoorn
The University has seen its share of community members lose their lives on the road. Junior Nicholas Costa was the seventh Rider person involved in a fatal car accident in the past two years.
Senior Thomas R. Galletta, 22, an advertising major, lost his life on Aug. 28. Galletta succumbed to injuries sustained in a crash two weeks earlier. He was hit on the driver’s side by a Ford truck at the intersection of Route 9 and Spring Valley Road.
Richard Deni, 54, a psychology professor, was involved in a two-vehicle crash on Aug. 12, 2006. The accident occurred on Princeton Pike at Province Line Road when Deni lost control and collided with another car. Police believed that a medical event caused Deni to lose control of his vehicle.
Sophomore Judy Muth, 19, an elementary education major, and her brother, freshman James Muth, 18, an entering computer information systems major, lost their lives Sept. 4, 2005 en route to the Lawrenceville campus for freshman move-in day. The Muths were traveling north on State Highway 47 in Cape May County when Judy Muth lost control of the car and crossed into the southbound lane, hitting another vehicle head-on.
Junior John E. Kostic, 20, an actuarial science and finance major, lost his life on Nov. 18, 2005. Kostic was in a chain-reaction collision involving three cars and three trucks on the southbound side of Route 1 below the I-95 overpass in Lawrence.
Senior David A. Hunt, 22, an education and psychology major, lost his life on Nov. 11, 2005. He lost control of his car while traveling south on Route 206 through Shamong Township, he crossed into the northbound lane and hit a flat-bed truck head-on.
The daily habit of driving has proven to be a fatal activity. According to data compiled by the United States Federal Government National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2005 there were approximately 6.4 million car accidents in the United States. An estimated 39,189 of the crashes were fatal and claimed the lives of more than 43,000 people.
