Jan 17, 2008 8:05 pm US/Eastern
Stuyvesant Van Crash Probe Focusing On Coach
One Athlete Left Paralyzed, Another Seriously Injured
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
There were new questions Thursday about the crash that left a Stuyvesant High School athlete paralyzed.
The city's Department of Education is now looking into whether the out-of-state trip ever should have happened.
It was along a stretch of Vermont highway where a van carrying the Stuyvesant track team flipped over, leaving four people trapped. Lucia Hsaio suffered serious injuries while Valerie Piro suffered a severe spinal injury.
Mike Kasper owns a running store where the 17-year-old junior, who is now paralyzed from the waist down, would show up for weekly runs.
"Valerie is just a really nice person," Kasper said. "A fun, friendly, sweet kid, a really nice kid. I think the fact the way people know Valerie makes it worse."
Piro and her teammates were heading to a meet at Dartmouth College when the van driven by coach Erin Taylor crashed. Taylor was released from the hospital Wednesday and Thursday wasn't answering her door. Ken Wright said he saw his neighbor late last week.
"She was just putting stuff in her car, probably for going on that trip that she went to in Vermont," Wright said.
Now comes the question: Was the trip authorized?
On Thursday, NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said if the coach was in the wrong, she might be fired but added Taylor could be exonerated, too.
"This matter is obviously under investigation," Klein said. "This is, obviously, a tragedy. I mean to have one of your kids in an automobile accident is a real tragedy."
As Klein and others weigh the fate of this track coach, doctors and Piro's parents await the fate of this young girl, hoping and praying she can someday walk again.
Vermont police say the road conditions were dry on Saturday when the accident occurred, and that all the student athletes were wearing seatbelts.
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