2d hit-and-run accident probed

October 22, 2007

State Police are investigating a second accident in which a man was struck by a vehicle on Memorial Drive over the weekend. A man, 75, was seriously injured about 11 p.m. Saturday, in an accident that closed the road for four hours, police said. Valerie F. Patterson, 53, of Boston was traveling west on Dewolfe Street in her sports utility vehicle when she hit Frank Derosier of Boston, police said. Derosier was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Police were searching last night for the driver in a hit and run on Memorial Drive at 2 a.m. Saturday. William Montell, 63, was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess with serious injuries.

Thomas G. Kelley, the state's secretary of veterans services and the country's highest-ranking Navy recipient of the Medal of Honor, will present the family of a New York resident who died in Afghanistan two years ago with the Medal of Honor flag tomorrow in Washington, D.C. Today, Lieutenant Michael Murphy of Smithtown, N.Y., will posthumously receive the first Medal of Honor awarded to a Navy SEAL in the war on terror since Vietnam, the state Department of Veterans Services said. Murphy also is the first veteran of the war in Afghanistan to receive the award, the veterans services office said.

A New Jersey man was killed early yesterday when an alleged drunk driver hit his car from behind on Route 128 in Waltham, State Police said. Christian N. Ighodaro of Hyde Park and a passenger were stopped in traffic in the northbound left lane about 2:50 a.m. when police said Lawrence P. Laine of Templeton struck the car, killing Ighodaro's passenger, Matthew B. Wasser, 22, of Bernardsville, N.J. Laine, who was uninjured, was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, police said. Ighodaro was taken to the Lahey Clinic in Burlington with serious injuries.

The gap between the rich and poor has grown faster in New England than in other areas of the country, a University of New Hampshire study shows. The study found that between 1989 and 2004, Vermont had the second-greatest change in income disparity in the country after Connecticut, although the state was not among those with the largest gaps. Connecticut had the third-highest disparity rate in 2004, while Massachusetts was number 10. Vermont ranked 31, up from 47; Maine, 40; and New Hampshire, 48. (AP)

A Plymouth State University student was diagnosed Saturday with a drug-resistant staph infection, adding to the list of people in New Hampshire who have contracted the illness. This month, a Boscawen girl, 4, died of pneumonia, a complication of a staph infection. The same strain caused infections in some high school football locker rooms this fall. Last week, school officials reported two cases of staph infection at Inter-Lakes Junior-Senior High School. (AP)

Fees at six toll crossings on New Hampshire highways were to increase at 12:01 a.m. today. At the Hooksett tolls on Interstate 93 and the Bedford tolls on the Everett Turnpike, the rates are increasing from 75 cents to $1. On the Spaulding turnpike, the tolls will go from 50 to 75 cents in Dover and Rochester. The main tolls on I-95 in Hampton are increasing from $1 to $1.50. (AP)