Father, Son Die In Wreck - By Rick Burnham

Tuesday October 24, 2006

Father, son die in wreck

BFA-Fairfax student succumbs to injuries

By RICK BURNHAM | Messenger Staff Writer

FLETCHER -- A Bellows Free Academy-Fairfax freshman involved in a head-on collision on Route 105 Sunday in Enosburg died early Monday at Fletcher Allen Health Care. His father died in the same accident.

Samuel Wilson, 15, of Fletcher, was thrown from the 1997 Dodge Intrepid in which he was riding. He suffered head and internal injuries, said police. Wilson had been transferred to the Burlington medical center after first being taken to the Northwestern Medical Center (NMC) in St. Albans.

Plans were under way Monday and today to provide grief counseling and support to students at BFA-Fairfax and Wilson was remembered fondly at his former Fletcher elementary school, as well.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office today identified a man who died at the scene of the accident as Wilson’s father, 47-year-old John Wilson, also of Fletcher. There had been a delay while next of kin were contacted.

A third passenger, 23-year-old Christopher Delisle, suffered a possible broken arm, cuts and bruises, and was taken to NMC, and later released.

Mark LaRose, 51, of Enosburg Falls, the driver of the second vehicle -- a LaRose’s Exxon Service wrecker and flatbed truck -- was not injured in the accident.

The accident happened shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday when John Wilson apparently lost control of the Intrepid after entering a sharp curve on Route 105. The car crossed the centerline and struck a 2005 Chevrolet truck driven by Larose.

Sheriff’s Office deputies believe speed was the leading cause of the crash, and that alcohol may have been a factor as well. Deputies say the crash is still under investigation.

BFA Fairfax Principal Scott Lang said Wilson, a ninth-grade student at the school, was well liked, and will be sorely missed.

“He was the kind of kid that you could not help but like, a very charming young man with a great sense of humor,” he said. “I was always impressed with his ability to tell things like they were. He was a very pleasant person to be around.

“It is a sad loss. The kids in the ninth-grade class are a very close bunch, and they are hurting right now.”

Lang said that a response team of counselors, school officials and local clergy met three times Monday to discuss the tragedy, and that they planned to meet again today. The plan is to provide as much assistance for the students and staff as is needed.

Jeffrey Teitelbaum, principal at Fletcher Elementary School, where Wilson graduated as a sixth grade student, remembered him as a young man with a great smile and a bit of a mischievous streak.

“He was a wonderful human being,” Teitelbaum said. “He always had a smile, he was always asking how people how they were doing. He really cared about other people. He was also mischievous at times. He was just a real good human being.”

Meanwhile, funeral arrangements for both father and son have been announced.

Visiting hours will be held from 2-6 p.m. Friday at the A. W. Rich Funeral Home in Fairfax. Funeral services will begin at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the United Church of Bakersfield/Fairfield.

Complete obituaries are expected in time for publication in Wednesday’s Messenger (obituaries).

The crash is still under investigation. Anyone with information about it is asked to contact the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office at 524-2121.

The deaths of the father and son were the fourth and fifth and also the second accident to claim two lives in Franklin County this month.