Collision causes vehicle stack up
By By Lori Schafer
staff writer
April 9, 2013
A two-vehicle collision involving a USU student and a guest lecturer took place Friday afternoon in a parking lot near the Chase Fine Arts Center.
Roy Benham, superintendent for the Louisiana School for the Deaf, was in Logan conducting a presentation for the deaf education students at USU. He said he had left the building when he and his wife, Nancy Benham, received a call asking for the return of the parking permit they had been issued earlier in the day.
After returning the permit the Benhams began driving away from USU and heading toward Salt Lake City to connect with their flight home. Their vehicle was soon struck by Nick Hanny, a junior studying music education.
“I was pulling out of the lane,” Hanny said. “There was a CRV parked on the corner. I pulled up enough to look, looked left and right, saw no one and after looking right I went to go. Their car had been in the blind spot of the CRV and my tires were already committed to turn. That’s how I ended up on top of them.”
Jan Kelleyking, a deaf education instructor and a friend of the Benhams, said the couple had stayed at her house during their time in Logan.
“I had already said goodbye to them and thought that was it because they were heading to the airport to catch their flight home when I got the call that they had gotten in an accident,” Kelleyking said.
Grace Benham, the couple’s 9-year-old daughter, is deaf and was also in the car with her parents. Kelleyking used American sign-language to speak to Grace in an attempt to let her know what was going on and to help keep her calm.
No one was injured as a direct result of the accident. However, Roy Benham is a cardiac patient who has had multiple heart attacks in the past. A pacemaker was implanted in his chest about two years ago.
As a precaution, medical personnel transported Benham from the scene by ambulance after he made comments about his left arm going numb.
“They kept Roy in the hospital for a few hours,” Kelleyking said. “His heart rhythms were off, but they got that under control and he was in a lot of pain, so he was given pain medications.”
Logan Regional Hospital released Benham a few hours after the accident. He and his family stayed with Kelleyking for another night.
“He’s going to have follow-ups here or there with his doctor, but they released him that night and he’s doing fine,” Kelleyking said. “Grace had never been in a wreck before so she was shaken up, but especially once her dad was back from the hospital and she saw that he was alright, she was fine.”
The Benhams were able to leave Saturday morning and returned home safely and without further problems.
Hanny was cited and given a ticket for failing to yield before he made his left turn.
“He didn’t come to a complete stop which you have to do,” officer Sutton Hanzalik said. “You have a ‘T’ intersection, so you have to come to a complete stop. He should have looked left, right, then left again because that’s where he was going to get hit. I’d be doing a double check. Anytime you’re moving your vehicle, you want the last place you look to be in the direction of the traffic you’ll first be running into.”
Hanny was not on his phone when the accident took place.
“I was completely vigilant,” Hanny said. “He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
SOURCE:
http://www.usustatesman.com/collision-causes-vehicle-stack-up-1.2822209#.UWUq8jfZPxU