Below is the article that was published today regarding the crash that I wrote about the other night..I just cant handle this right now. The entire town feels like a dark cloud is hanging over it!!
Advertisement
Girl's parents, brother die in Yates crash
Patrick Flanigan
Staff writer
(March 6, 2007) — Relatives of a 17-year-old Dundee girl traveled to Yates County on Monday after the girl's parents and only sibling were killed in a weather-related crash Sunday, officials said.
"It's pretty sad," said Yates County Sheriff Ronald G. Spike. "There are a lot of legal issues to sort out. Somebody has to be the guardian."
Timothy A. Freeland, 45, Kerry S. Freeland, 37, and Russell A. "Rusty" Freeland, 13, were all pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which happened about 3 p.m. on Route 14A in the town of Barrington, Spike said.
The Freelands had dropped off their daughter, Samantha Freeland, at a friend's house and were taking their son to a movie in Penn Yan when the car collided with a pickup just south of Hobson Road near the Windmill Farm and Craft Market, Spike said.
The Freelands were traveling north when Timothy Freeland lost control on a patch of snow, Spike said. The compact car spun into the southbound lane, striking the front of a full-size pickup with the right side of the car, Spike said. Russell and Kerry Freeland were ejected from the car. Kerry Freeland was in the front seat wearing a seatbelt and it appears that Russell was in the back seat without one, Spike said.
"It was a horrendous collision," he said.
Two people in the truck suffered minor injuries. Spike said they were returning from the movie theater that the Freelands were driving toward.
Counselors helped students, faculty and staff at the Dundee Central School try to cope with the death of their friend in the seventh grade Monday and will return today, said Nancy Zimar, the district's superintendent.
"We're a small school and very much a family," she said. "When you lose one child, everyone is impacted."
Kathy Ring, principal of the Dundee elementary school, described Russell as a precocious boy who loved to tell stories, learn about animals and draw Pokemon characters.
"He was a bright young man with many talents," she said. "He loved to engage people in conversation."
Ring used to keep a white-lipped tree frog in her office that Russell volunteered to feed each day. He named it Dewey because it rhymed with gooey, and he taped a list of handling instructions to the side of the glass case, which sits on Ring's windowsill.
"Have wet hands," he wrote. "When (you are) done, don't put hands in your mouth."
Chase Magee, program director at the Dundee Area Youth Center, where Russell was a regular visitor, remembered how the young boy liked to tell detailed stories.
In one tale, Russell recounted how when he was 4 years old, he sat on a porch at a vacation campsite and watched his father mow the lawn. Russell included the fact that he was sipping a drink that had a little hat in it.
The story ended with Timothy Freeland running over a beehive with the mower and screaming at the surprise discovery. Magee laughed as he remembered Russell's imitation of the scream.
Spike said Timothy Freeland had lived in Steuben County until recently reuniting with his family in Dundee. Kerry Freeland managed the bookstore at Keuka College, said Dee Anderson, an elder at the First Presbyterian Church of Dundee.
Kerry Freeland had been an elder at the church for many years before she recently began attending another church, Anderson said. "She was a very caring person."
Anderson said Kerry Freeland never sought recognition for her good deeds. She enjoyed helping the children in the church.
"She was one of those people who was happy to stay in the background and help," she said.
Ring said Samantha Freeland is a junior in the high school and peer counselor for elementary school students. Anderson said Samantha Freeland's closest friends and relatives are helping her deal with the loss.
"I just can't imagine the feeling of being the only one left," she said.
[email protected]