NEWPORT -- A 17-year-old Middletown boy died yesterday afternoon after his car flipped over and landed on its roof in a parking lot at Easton's Beach, according to the police.
The police yesterday declined to identify the victim, saying they had not yet notified the teen's family. Lt. Michael Brennan said no one else was in the car and that the boy was prounounced dead at the scene. The police offered few other details about the accident, including its cause.
Word of the youth's death spread rapidly. Within an hour after the 4:14 p.m. accident, a group of his classmates at Middletown High School had gathered behind the police tape near the skateboard park at the Middletown end of the parking lot. Authorities were still awaiting the arrival of the state medical examiner to remove the body from the wreck.
The students cried and hugged one another at the scene until a firefighter, upon the arrival of the medical examiner shortly after 6 p.m., urged the group to leave.
Patrick Aylward, a health and physical education teacher, was the only high school representative at the scene at the time. He suggested the students gather at the high school and said he was arranging for grief counselors to be there to speak with them. Aylward said the boy was a senior.
"He loved automobiles. He loved skateboarding. He loved working on his car," he said.
Paul Howard, on vacation from New Mexico, had parked his camper van in the parking lot about an hour before the accident. Children were playing in the skateboard park, he said. While inside the camper, he heard the sound of tires squealing. His dog was outside and, fearing for the animal's safety, he called him inside. A moment later he heard what sounded like an accident just a few feet from his vehicle.
"I heard boom. It was an extremely loud crash," Howard said.
He ran outside and saw the youth's sports coupe flipped over. He ran over and was the first to reach him. The boy was conscious and mumbling. Although Howard feared an explosion, he noticed the youth's serious injuries and did not try to move him.
"I held my arm around him and was telling him to hang on," said the Marine Corps Vietnam veteran. A moment later, he said, the boy lost consciousness.
The car flipped over in a parking lot that had many piles of mud-covered snow.
"It looked like he might have been using them for S-turns," Howard said.
The police, who sent an accident reconstruction team to the scene, are still investigating. A spokesman last night could not immediately say whether the youth had been wearing a seat belt.
Staff writer Alex Kuffner contributed to this report.
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