Girl riding bike is hit, killed by NStar truck

By Elizabeth Ratto and Marc Robins, Globe Correspondents  |  September 18, 2007

WALPOLE - In what NStar officials are calling a tragic accident, a 13-year-old Walpole girl was struck and killed by an energy company truck yesterday as she rode her bike in front of a utility yard.

The seventh-grader at Eleanor N. Johnson Middle School, whose name was withheld pending notification of her family, was hit by the truck about 3:06 p.m. as it turned into the yard on Main Street. She died about an hour later at Caritas Norwood Hospital, police said.

Tom May - NStar chairman, president, and chief executive - lamented the accident in a statement and said the company is working closely with police in the investigation.

"On behalf of all NStar employees, I want to express our deepest sympathy and sadness to the family of this young girl for the tragic accident." May said. "This is something that every parent worries about and something that every driver is concerned about."

May said the driver involved in the accident is a longstanding NStar employee, "extremely distraught over the loss of this young girl's life."

Police said the victim was traveling away from her home, toward downtown with a classmate who was riding slightly ahead of her when she was hit by what NStar officials said was an overhead single-bucket truck. The classmate was uninjured.

Identified by Fox25 as Dante Small, he told the station the truck dragged the girl and that he tried to comfort her as she screamed.

Antoinette Gagliard, 15, who identified herself as a friend of the victim's sister, said the girl liked to dance, talk to her friends, and ride her bike.

"She was really funny," Gagliard said. "She didn't care about what people thought about her. She was fun to be around."

Details of how the accident occurred were unclear last night. Walpole Deputy Police Chief Scott Bushway said the department and the State Police accident reconstruction team were investigating.

Reached by phone at his office last night, School Superintendent Lincoln D. Lynch III said grief counselors would be at the school today.

Lynch said plans for a memorial service may be discussed as early as today, but that the school was focused on supporting its students.

"I think the entire school community - our hearts go out to the family and friends, and at this point we all have to just support each other," Lynch said.