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Boston University is mourning the loss of three students studying abroad who died in a minivan crash in New Zealand.
Austin Breashears, Roch Jauberty and Daniela Lekhno were traveling in a minivan near the North Island vacation town of Taupo when the vehicle drifted to the side of the road and then rolled when the driver tried to correct course, New Zealand police said.
Five other students were injured in the accident early Saturday, including one, Margaret Theriault, who was airlifted from the crash site to a hospital in Taupo. In a statement Sunday afternoon, local health official Mary Anne Gill said the 21-year-old woman had surgery Saturday and was in intensive care.
New Zealand police said Sunday two other women, one 20 and the other 21, were in stable condition. The other two injured — a 20-year-old man and 20-year-old woman — were released Saturday.
More than 200 people gathered Saturday night at Boston University’s Charles River campus for a candlelight vigil for the students.
Bizuayehu Tesfaye / AP
Boston University students including Tori Pinheiro, third right, of New Bedford, Mass., the girlfriend of victim Austin Brashears, hold a candlelight vigil on Marsh Plaza at Boston University on Saturday.
"We know these students were alive with hopes, dreams and potential and capacity, all dashed," BU president Robert Brown told the crowd.
Fellow student Tori Pinheiro cried as she recalled how friendly Brashears was and how much she loved him.
She said she had found an old voicemail he had left her. "I listened to it four times, just to hear your voice," she told the crowd as she tried to fight back tears.
Brashears was from Huntington Beach, Calif., and was president of the BU men’s water polo club last semester, the university said. According to the New Zealand Herald, he celebrated his 21st birthday a few weeks ago by bungee jumping from the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Boston University
Austin Brashears, Daniela Lekhno, Roch Jauberty
Jauberty, 21, had lived in Los Angeles and Paris. He had a double major, international relations and economics, and a minor in business administration and management, the school said. Jauberty interned at the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston.
Lekhno, of Manalapan, N.J., was studying business administration and management, with a minor in finance. She was a former member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority.
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New Zealand police spokeswoman Kim Perks said Sunday the cause of the crash isn’t known and the investigation "will take some time."
The van was one of three carrying 26 BU students to Tongariro Crossing, a popular hiking site in the north of the country, according to the university. No BU staff was involved with the trip, which was organized by the students. The lead van proceeded to its destination, its passengers unaware of the disaster behind them, the school said. The second van stopped at the scene of the accident.
Boston University's website quoted student Evan White, who was in one of the other vans, as saying that he and others saw the crash in the rearview mirror and backed up to the site.
"We saw people lying in the road and saw wounded people and just felt kind of helpless," he said. "Our first impulse was to do whatever we could, but everyone had a sense of helplessness. I helped people away from the van. Others ran to a house to get help."
Brashears' mother, Julie, told The Boston Globe that he frequently posted photos on Facebook documenting his adventures in New Zealand, including bungee-jumping off the Auckland Harbor Bridge on his birthday. She said he planned weekend outings for the study abroad group.
"Everyone called him the cruise director," she said. "He wanted to include everybody on the trips. He loved having an eclectic group of friends."
Student body president Howard Male, a friend of Brashears, said that before leaving the students said they hoped to view scenery captured on film in the "Lord of the Rings" movies.
"They were all so excited to be able to go explore what many guidebooks ... have called some of the most beautiful places on the planet," Male said.
The tragedy cast a pall over the campus as some students anticipated approaching graduation and others packed up at the end of the school year.
Study abroad program executive director Bernd Widdig called the students' deaths an "unprecedented tragedy," the worst to hit the program since it began in the 1980s. The New Zealand part of the program began in 2003 and involves courses at the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology.
All the students except Theriault were enrolled in a BU study abroad program in Auckland, the BU website said. Theriault was enrolled in a study abroad program in Sydney, Australia.
The deaths were the latest in a series of tragedies to befall the campus this semester. According to The Boston Globe:
In January, sophomore Joshua Goldenberg suffered serious head trauma after jumping from a second-floor window to escape a blaze in an Allston apartment building.
Two BU hockey players were arrested on sexual assault charges.
And in April, graduate student Kanagala Seshadri Rao, 24, was found dead, with gunshot wounds to his head and leg, on a residential Allston street.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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This is really sad. As a former study abroad student who went to the University of Auckland my thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and families.
There are challenges to suddenly having to start driving on the left side of the road.
No, these are consequences of not using the seatbelts.
doesn't mean there arent challenges to driving on the left side...
The lord calls more of his children home. I pray they floated gently to his kingdom.
God only cares about careful people.
These didn't float gently. They were thrown out the windows, because they were too cool to wear the seatbelts.
Interesting idea on here that maybe the SS guys were also setting up a party for the boss.
Some may be outraged by the suggestion, but it wouldn't be the first time. Remember JFK?
Now, like then, a compliant lapdog press is in place. Will we wait decades to find out the truth behind the myth?
As tragic as this incident, I am puzzled at the degree of media coverage in Boston-area and in general. This was the cover story of the Sunday edition of Boston Globe.... a few weeks ago or so, a student from same university was murdered....and it never really got any attention. What makes a story worth to be the lead story is always puzzling....
100 people die on US highways every day. So what's up w/ this story. This has been an MSN headline for 3-4 days now.
May the Souls of the Faithful, Departed Rest in Peace. May God give the Strength and Courage to the Families of the Deceased to bear with this Loss. May God Bless their Souls. May God give the Strength and Courage to the Injured to Recover Quickly. GOD BLESS THE USA. GOD BLESS NEW ZEALAND.
Kevin Valentine Moraes
Mira Road (Thane)
As an alumni and who took advantage of the study abroad program there 20 years ago, I'd shocked and saddened to read this. Their poor families.
Nightmares that their parents no doubt had before they left. I am sorry for the loss of such promising young adults. It's just sad.
Driving alert, aware, focused, happy, and at safe speeds, are best practices which can be the determining factor in whether we have a traffic acccident or not. Sadly, this continuing carnage on our roadways are sometimes fatal. Condolences to the families and to the University community. It doesn't matter where or under what circumstance you use the roadway, if life saving best practices become daily habit, then you afford yourself that extra layer of protection against crashing, and create a safer driving environment for everyone. God's peace be with everyone affected.
Such a trajedy to lose people with such bright potential.. The world lost some good kids.
Pray for the families; God called some of his youth, Blah, Blah, Blah...... What GOD!? If there was a God, these young kids wouldn't have died; that is, unless this God is a sadistic bastard that enjoys inflicting pain and suffering. You religious, brainwashed morons are to stupid to realize that there's no God--It's all superstitious nonsense. Instead of wasting time praying to God, why don't you do something practical and constructive such as sending condolences to the families and forcing Boston University to pay for the cost of shipping the bodies back to their families.
The BU officials are all in mourning and full of sorrow for the deaths of these students, but they will not pony up the cost of shipping the bodies back to the USA. This cost is not trivial--~$30,000 per body. BU is going to stick the families with this cost. What a bunch of CRAP! These students were in New Zealand on a study abroad program, under BU school direction. The school should be paying the cost of getting the bodies back, not the families.
yo-ho, there is a God because you can not answer their parents questions as to why they children were taken away so early, and whatever the real reason might be. to have God as a reason helps in the healing process and you, as an intellectual, should know better why God is necessary in these situations. if you don't, then you still need to do some more reading.
this made the news because its not just an accident. It is a tragedy because we lost 3 bright, young kids, who had a great future. my prayers go to their families and loved ones.
I lived there for a year and drove in that area (Senior Consultant with Lakes DHB). New Zealand's road network is designed for Lilliput---lots of dangerous curves and poor design. My condolences to the families of the victims.