News / Sports
Five Cheerleaders Killed in Crash in Western New York
Just five days after Fairport High School celebrated its graduation an almost unfathomable tragedy struck the small town of 6,000 in New York’s Finger Lakes region. A group of five cheerleaders who were among that graduating class were killed on Tuesday night after their SUV swerved into oncoming traffic and hit a tractor-trailer head on.
The five girls had been traveling on a two lane road and were being followed by another group of four classmates en route to a vacation home to enjoy the final few days before heading off to college. Determined to pass a van that had been traveling at a slow speed the driver of the SUV overtook the vehicle on the two lane highway but when she pulled back into her lane she may have gone too far right and tried to overcorrect the mistake leading to the accident.
For the four girls that were traveling behind their friends they were forced to witness the tragedy that killed their classmates.
One of the passengers in the trailing vehicle, 18-year-old Keisha Koneski, said “In our car, we could see the truck coming, and we all started screaming.” Within a moment the SUV hit the oncoming tractor trailer and burst into flames.
Killed in the accident were 17-year-olds Bailey Goodman and Meredith McClure along with 18-year-olds Sara Monnat, Hannah Congdon and Katherine Shirley.
