A University of Massachusetts male student was found early Friday morning lying unconscious in the road, apparently either hit by or having fallen from a moving vehicle.
Petrit Vasi, 22, of Dorchester, Mass. was found by the Amherst Police Department at 12:20 a.m. at the intersection of Triangle and Mattoon Streets in Amherst. Police described his injuries as consistent with being struck by or falling from a motor vehicle. Vasi sustained serious head injuries, the Amherst Police said.
According to police, Vasi was transferred by an Amherst Fire Department ambulance to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, and was initially classified as being in critical condition. His status was recently upgraded to serious condition, a spokesman for the hospital said yesterday.
APD has not identified the operator of any vehicle involved in the incident, nor have they obtained a description of the vehicles. Investigators are asking those with information call the APD Detective Bureau at 413-256-4015.
Vasi is a junior economics student at the University.
A number of other students have been struck on campus by vehicles in the past few years, including four students who were struck in separate incidents while crossing streets in the fall of 2002.
In November 2002, Jared R. Cariddi was struck by a car on East Pleasant Street. In October 2002, a female was struck in a crosswalk near the Mullins Center. In September 2002, Shandralee Lerro was hit by a car in a crosswalk near the horseshoe in the Southwest Residential Area. Jessica Moody was hit while crossing University Drive in September of that year.
The increase in accidents caused the University to install a new traffic control device on University Drive before the start of the fall semester. These large yellow bumps in the pavement, or bulds, were put in to prevent cars from passing one another in close proximity to pedestrian crossings. The bulds extend outward into the street as they approach the crosswalk, in a triangular shape.
The University also installed lit signs at the crossings, in order to alert drivers of potential foot traffic on what is considered to be a largely pedestrian campus.
