 "Photo: Mike Mangum/The Daily Utah Chronicle")
A former professor died Thursday night after falling out of a moving shuttle.
The 63-year-old woman, whose identity has not been released, fell out of a U campus shuttle at about 8:20 p.m., as it took a left turn from North Campus Drive to Mario Capecchi Drive, according to the U Police Department.
The woman was standing on the steps in front of the rear doors, since all of the shuttle seats were occupied. During the turn, she stumbled and reached out to grab a handle or a bar but failed. She fell against the doors, which gave way just enough for her to fall out.
“It happened so fast,” said Lauren McKay, a freshman who was sitting near the woman in the back of the shuttle. “She was there, and then she was gone. It could’ve happened to anyone.”
Alyssa Spencer, who was sitting between McKay and the woman, saw the woman fall and screamed. The shuttle driver stopped when he heard his passengers crying out that something terrible had happened.
“It was awful,” said Spencer, a junior in family studies. “I was really freaking out.”
U Police responded to the call. The woman, whose head had hit the ground, was alive but unconscious when paramedics arrived and transported her to the University Hospital emergency room. She died from her injuries about two hours later at the hospital, after she was taken off respiratory therapy.
U Police have not released the woman’s name, as they have not been able to identify her next of kin. Officers went to her apartment Thursday night hoping to find someone there, but she lives alone, said Sgt. Mike McPharlin. Investigators tried to figure out who her family members are by talking to her co-workers Friday, but so far, they’ve hit a brick wall.
She adopted an English name when she came to the U from China more than nine years ago, which complicates the search for her family. She was a professor at the U in 2000 and became a naturalized citizen in 2003 but was no longer working at the U at the time of her death, said U spokesman Remi Barron.
30 comments
i myself ride the shuttle everyday, and have for YEARS and some of those times have been scary,
i hate to stand in them and i will wait for the next one whether i'm late or not...sitting in the shuttles
with no seat belt is also very dangerous- landing on someone elses lap or on the floor.
my thought these past days- why didn't anyone offer this older lady their seat?
maybe if they would have then this tragedy would not have happened........
I've been driven a two shuttle trainees since I've been here and both experiences were scary. The first case was when the trainee almost had a collision with a little red sports car in a round-a-bout. We were almost 2 feet away from hitting it and on top of that everyone on the shuttle was flung forward , some from their seats completely.
Second, I was riding a shuttle to the dorms and was sitting near the front of the bus when a driver was being trained and was listening to what he was saying. The trainer would say something like, "this is how we do this okay, it might be a pain but we have to keep safety in mind." and the numbskull would argue with almost everything the trainer said! I hope that person was not hired and I hope the driver I reported was fired.
In regards to chad,'s previous psuedoliberalistic jabbering, his "open" mindedness is moronic and his logic convoluted. This is why the ignorant braindead should not be allowed to comment on anything except juvinile topics like which beanies to wear. Stick with what you know!