Grayling's Dead ID'd; Local Sports Officials React
GRAYLING---Michigan State Police accident reconstruction teams are continuing to investigate Monday's traffic crash that involved the Grayling High School Golf Team.
Police on Tuesday released the names of the three people who were killed.
30-year-old Jason Potter…the Grayling Vikings Boys Golf Coach…and 18-year-old Louis Menard, a member of the Vikings boys golf team, died…as did 27-year-old Cassandra Stapleton, who was a passenger in the other vehicle that was involved.
A total of seven other people, including several other members of the Grayling golf team, were still hospitalized Tuesday night in Traverse City. One was improved from critical to serious condition, and another was upgraded from serious to fair condition.
Michigan State Police have not yet determined who was at fault for that accident, which happened at an intersection on a rural county road in Kalkaska County. Law enforcement officials say that two boys are in medically-induced comas to prevent further brain damage, and another boy suffered a broken jaw and broken teeth. An additional boy has at least a broken pelvis, according to state police.
Here in the Central Upper Peninsula, some school administrators and coaches reacted with sadness to the news when we contacted them on Tuesday.
Jay Kulbertis comments.
Kulbertis says that traveling by school bus is the safesst way to go, and he wishes that every student in his district could be transported to every event on a bus, but that is impossible. He says that there is no way to 100% prevent an accident from happening.
In Escanaba, Jim Hansen is the Eskymo varsity football head coach, which uses a bus for away games. And he is also the varsity tennis head coach, which doesn't have a bus. And Hansen is the assistant wrestling coach, which only uses buses occassionally, like for long road trips like for tournaments downstate.
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Jim Hansen comments.
Hansen adds, however, that it is financially impractical to use a 50-seat bus to transport a team that has only eight or ten members.
Kulbertis says that many Upper Peninsula high school sports programs would have to be eliminated if districts were told that they could only use bus transportation to get their student-athletes to away games.
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