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Schools Superintendent Now Says He's Unsure of 3rd Teen's Status in Deadly Driver's Ed Crash

The New York schools superintendent who said Wednesday night that a third teen injured in a driver's education vehicle crash that killed two students had also died now says that he's unable to confirm the boy's status.

Goshen School Superintendent Daniel Connor said that 16-year-old Lucas O'Connor, a passenger in the driver's ed car that was T-boned by a tractor-trailer as it went through a blinking red traffic light in Warwick, had died. Two other 16-year-old boys died in the Tuesday morning crash; the 16-year-old female driver survived and has been released from the hospital.

Connor made the announcement about O'Connor Wednesday night at a candlelight vigil for the four teenagers who had been in the vehicle. But on Thursday, he said he couldn't confirm that the third teen had died and said he had left a message for O'Connor's family. He said Thursday afternoon that the parents had not returned his call.

Connor told NBC 4 New York the information Wednesday came from a "circle of close friends" of O'Connor, and that he thought "we got some very good information." He declined to comment further because he said he has not spoken with O'Connor's parents. 

O'Connor's family couldn't immediately be reached by NBC 4 New York Thursday. Warwick Police Lt. Tom Maslanka says Westchester Medical Center had listed O'Connor in critical condition Thursday morning. A hospital spokesman told NBC 4 New York he could not give information on O'Connor; a person who answered the phone at the hospital's main desk said the boy was in the trauma unit. 

The four teenagers -- O'Connor, driver Claudia Krebs, Antonio Baglivo and Paul VanDoran -- and an adult instructor were inside the driver's ed vehicle when it was hit by the truck Tuesday morning. Baglivo and VanDoran, who had been in the backseat, died the day of the crash. 

Krebs was released from a hospital Wednesday afternoon, according to Connor. She was behind the wheel of the driver's ed car, owned by Middletown's Decat Driving School, as it approached the intersection of County Road 1 and Blooms Corner Road. A tractor-trailer neared the intersection around the same time as Krebs and her four passengers. The truck had the right of way.

Krebs' vehicle stopped at the blinking red light, then jetted into the intersection, authorities said the truck driver told them. The truck driver couldn't stop in time and slammed the rear of the driver's ed car. 

One of the boys who died was going into his senior year; the other would have been a junior this fall. Friends, classmates and teachers were devastated as they remembered the boys at the vigil Wednesday. 

"They woke up in the morning, just going out in the car with their friends and having a wonderful day," elementary school teacher Joanne Karchawer said. "These things are so unexpected."

The parents of Baglivo were at the vigil. 

"He was always into football," Davgil David-Gil, a friend, said. "He was so passionate about football."

The 60-year-old driving instructor and the trucker, a 61-year-old Pennsylvania man, were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. All five passengers in the car were wearing seat belts, authorities said.

The high school contracts with Decat Driving School in Middletown to provide driver's training to students over the summer.

A town official said the town has made multiple requests in the last few years to change the light from a blinking intersection to a full functional light because it has been a "difficult intersection."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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