Disabled woman run over by van

A caretaker driving a van out of a group home for disabled women in Salem yesterday backed over one of the home's residents, leaving her clinging to life in a Boston hospital, officials said.

The resident, 67-year-old Barbara Reid, was flown to Brigham and Women's Hospital, where she was listed last night in critical condition, a hospital spokesman said. Police did not cite the driver, Linda Supikova, who cares for developmentally disabled residents at the Clifton Avenue home, which is run by North Shore ARC.

''It was an unfortunate accident," Salem Police Lieutenant Paul Lemelin said.

Shortly before 12:30 p.m., Supikova climbed into the home's silver Ford Windstar van and shifted into reverse. A neighbor across the street, Michael Cecere, said he looked over when the van's tires began to screech, spinning in an icy rut near the road.

Reid walked behind the van, apparently at the moment the tires caught and propelled the van backward.

''The next thing I saw was her under the van," said Cecere, who called 911 before rushing over to help. ''She, I guess, she didn't see her. It was horrific."

Supikova stopped the van and was lying, shaken, on the ground as rescuers began to extricate Reid, neighbors said. Reid was lying on her side across the road, wedged near the front wheels of the van, and had no pulse.

One firefighter at the scene said he did not expect her to survive.

Rescuers lifted the van and resuscitated Reid, who was taken to a local hospital then flown by helicopter to Boston.

Neighbors up and down the quiet, snowy avenue exchanged updates on her condition yesterday afternoon as police officers reconstructing the accident measured the van's bumper and the driveway in front of the home.

Inside the two-story, beige house with a ''Happy Harvest" sign hanging on the door, two residents had not come to grips with what happened to their housemate, looking distraught as they explained to visitors that Reid was hurt by a truck and that their caretaker had left to make a report.

Calls seeking comment from the executive director of North Shore ARC, Jerry McCarthy, were not returned yesterday.

The ARC is a nonprofit organization that helps disabled individuals live as independently as possible, according to the organization's website.

ARC supports more than 100 people in 33 homes in communities across the North Shore, the website says.

A neighbor of the Clifton Avenue house said Reid and her housemates are very quiet residents who often take walks to the neighborhood park at the end of the block.

''The ladies always seemed to be in great spirits," said Carson Beote as he shoveled snow from his Clifton Avenue driveway a few hours after the accident. ''It's so sad."What really struck him, he said, was that it could have happened to anyone.

He pointed at 3-foot snowdrifts lining both sides of the avenue and noted that most everyone on the street had problems getting out of their driveways at one time or another this winter.

That sometimes requires gunning a car's engine until the tires catch, he said, even when drivers cannot clearly see what is passing behind them.

''I'm sure we've all done it before," Beote said. ''Then they catch, and, bam, before you know it . . ."

Beote took a break from shoveling to speak with a police officer at the accident scene and get an update on Reid's condition.

She is still alive, the officer told Beote.

''That's all I wanted to hear," Beote said.

Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.