NU student injured in accident
during spring break trip

By Daisy Sosa
Norwich Guidon Campus Editor

Eric Edmonds, surrounded here by friends who were with him on the trek to Florida during spring break, suffered a spinal cord injury in an automobile accident which left him paralyzed from the mid-chest down. Pictured with him are (l-r) Kristen Thayer, Kalani Handley, Miki Packett, Michael Kattany and John Holm. Packett and Kattany were with Edmonds in the car when the accident occurred in Concord, NC, on Mar. 3. Edmonds is now in a Gainsville, Fla., hospital listed in good condition.

For Kalani Handley, going to sleep has become somewhat of a challenge; the events of that morning keep replaying in his head.

The memory of his friends being lifted into an ambulance following a one-car rollover while on their way to Florida for spring break is still vivid for him.

"When I first heard what happened, of course I was shocked," said Handley, 21, a communications major from Kailua, Hawaii, explaining that the hospital workers "were really nice to us; they set us in a room; they talked to us and told us that these things can happen to anyone."

Handley, though not in the accident vehicle, was part of a two-car caravan driving through rainy, stormy weather in North Carolina when the student car following them vanished.

In the early morning hours of March 3, while driving to spring break and following Handley's car, Miki Packett, Mike Kattany and Eric Edmonds were involved in a car accident in Concord. They were following the first car carrying John Holme, Handley and Kristen Thayer.

Both Packett and Kattany were belted in, but Edmonds was sleeping on the back seat without a belt on.

"We stopped to get some gas, and we were on the road for about 10 to 15 minutes," said Packett, 20, a communications major from Alexandria, VA, explaining that it had been raining and he was following Holme.

Packett, who was driving the second vehicle, said that as he proceeded to pass another car on the interstate, it suddenly "cut in front of me and went off the road."

Packett said he swerved to avoid hitting the other car and lost control. Packett's car then hit the embankment and starting flipping.

"The car spun around and started flipping down the highway in the shoulder; it landed right side up," said Kattany. "I looked in the back seat and Eric was not in the back seat of the car, anymore."

Edmonds was thrown from the car and was lying a few yards from the wrecked car. Both Packett and Kattany were uninjured.

"I can remember the smell; I remember that perfect smell inside the car as it was flipping. I can remember hearing the glass break and feeling it hit me in the head and in the face," Kattany said. "I remember feeling the wind rush around inside the car coming through the windows and then blowing out the windows as we were rolling; I had my eyes closed the whole time."

When Holme realized Packett was no longer behind them on the interstate, he turned around on the next exit and returned to the crash site. When he arrived at the scene, about five minutes later, the ambulance was already there and had already strapped Edmonds to a backboard in preparation for transport in the ambulance.

"John and I were just stunned by the fact that we didn't know what happened and that everything was happening so fast," Handley said, adding that Kattany and Packett "were speechless, and didn't know how to deal with it."

"We knew that (Edmonds) had been thrown from the vehicle; we were expecting his legs to be broken, because he said he couldn't feel his legs," said Thayer, 28, an English major from Alexandria, Va.

Edmonds, Packet and Kattany were taken to the hospital, which was only about two minutes away from where the accident occurred.

"When I first heard Eric was paralyzed, I thought they were joking for some reason," said Kattany, 21, a political Science major from Natick, Mass. "I didn't believe them."

The university was notified by the hospital about the accident.

"As always when someone is seriously injured it's a great deal of concern within the corps and the administration, faculty members, coaches and ROTC," said Col. Leonard Docinski, Commandant of Cadets. "We are mainly concerned about the individual, finding out as quickly as possible how serious it is and what we can do to help the individual and the family."

Kattany said his injuries were minor, claiming that he just pulled some back muscles. Packett was also discharged without injury.

"When the doctor told us that (Edmonds) was paralyzed, Miki and I automatically started crying," Handley said.

"I was in tears for hours the first three days I was in the hospital," Packett said, explaining that even though he wasn't admitted to the hospital, he stayed for Edmonds. "I was pretty emotional."

Thayer explained that Edmonds' injuries involved the spinal cord region "T6 and T7 is about the sternum, so that's where he is paralyzed, from the sternum down."

"He has movement in his hands, and he was gripping with it," Thayer said, adding that by Wednesday after the accident Edmonds was already using a wheelchair.

Holme said Edmonds was in good spirits. "The whole time, he was joking around with us, laughing with us."

"When he first realized he was paralyzed, he was the one that was in the highest spirits," Packett said. "He didn't want us to feel as if it was anyone's fault. He kept telling me that it wasn't my fault, that it wasn't anyone's fault. He was doing a lot better than we were."

But for Edmonds' Norwich roommate, Ben Owen, the news was difficult to accept.

"I have known Eric for two years, now; we are good friends," said Owen, 19, a history major from Minneapolis, Minn. "Eric is a pretty tough person; if there is something that gets in his way, he usually does his best to put it behind him and keep moving on."

Edmonds, who was part of the NU swim team, was also on a Marine Corps scholarship. He was part of India company, where the held the rank of upperclass platoon sergeant.

"He was one of the top swimmers on the team. We just got back from New England Championships, and in the 50 and 100 butterfly he was second," said Coach Steve Looke, explaining that Edmonds was "not only a good swimmer on our team but also in New Englands."

"I think the initial reaction of the team was kind of mobilize to Eric's support," Looke said. "To get to look for ways to help and see what they could do, to make it easier for him."

"Everyone on the swim team knows that Eric was a very hard swimmer," Thayer said. "He has come a long way from last year."

For those involved in the accident, guilt may be the lasting effect.

"We all have guilt, because we all went through it," Kattany said. "We are all okay, so it doesn't matter what happened to us, it's what happened to Eric."

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