Boston University Students Killed In New Zealand Car Accident, Community Holds Candelight Vigil

Three Boston University students studying abroad in New Zealand died in a car accident when their minivan swerved off the road early Saturday morning. Five additional BU students were injured in the crash, according to information from the U.S. Consulate in New Zealand.

The students were near the North Island vacation town of Taupo, en route to visit one of the locations used in the "Lord of the Rings" films. They were nearing the end of their semester there.

One of the students injured was placed in intensive care, two were listed in stable care and two others were released from a Taupo hospital.

On Saturday evening, BU students gathered at Marsh Plaza on campus to hold a candlelight vigil and remember the students who were killed in the accident -- College of Engineering junior Austin Brashears, CAS sophomore Roch Jauberty and School of Management junior Daniela Lekhno.

Brashears' teammates on the water polo team passed a water polo ball around for members to sign and send to his family, the Boston Globe reports.

"We like to talk about 'one BU,'" Brother Lawrence Whitney, the university chaplain, told the Globe, "but it's moments like this where we actually live it."

Study abroad program executive director Bernd Widdig said it was an "unprecedented tragedy."

"Our thoughts and prayers go to the families and friends of the three young people who have lost their lives," BU president Robert Brown said in a mass email to students. "We are also holding the injured students close in our thoughts and prayers."

The tragedy overseas caps off a tumultuous semester for the BU community.

In January, sophomore Joshua Goldenberg suffered serious head trauma jumping out of a window to escape a fire in an apartment building. In February, BU hockey players were arrested on sexual assault charges. A BU fraternity was closed in April after members were charged with hazing. Also last month, graduate student Kanagala Seshadri Rao, was found dead with gunshot wounds.

"It's been a rough year," Hannah Waxman, a BU freshman, told the Globe. "A lot has happened in a short amount of time."

The Daily Free Press reports BU is planning to offer counseling to students struggling to cope with the events.

New Zealand police spokeswoman Kim Perks told NBC News the cause of the crash is unknown at this time, and an investigation is underway.

View photos from the scene of the car accident and of the candlelight vigil:

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Comments

[belldn3]

05:18 PM on 05/14/2012

A great show of unity.

[soli]

01:35 PM on 05/14/2012

I apologize for appearing to be so crass about this and to anyone whom it may offend, but it needs to be said:

Young people (children) die in US car crashes every day.
Unless the incidents involve multiple cars and a semi, a Hollywood celebrity, a drunk housewife, or some government official's kid, the stories never make national news.
Why is this one so special?
Why are our "normal" children cast aside?

Is it because:
1) The HP editor graduated from BU;
2) The parents of the 3 kids are very rich;
3) Someone on the HP staff likes New Zealand and wanted to see pictures; or
4) It was just a slow news day.

Sure..., it's sad and bad that these kids died, but why sensationalize a candlelight vigil?
Why even have the vigil?
Most of the people holding candles probably didn't even know the 3 dead kids.

[belldn3]

05:20 PM on 05/14/2012

A HP editor graduated? From what?

[Gabriel60609]

06:29 PM on 05/14/2012

Soli,
How is coverage of the vigil "sensationalizing" it? To be true, in my humble opinion, is to suggest it was covered by adding some kind of lurid non truth; a deliberate outrageous exaggeration of some sort. I appreciate your sentiment as to the non attention with which most citizens go though tragedies. But, how does the fact these events were covered, regardless of who the students were ("are", for those injured), make victims of other tragedies, who for whatever reason didn't make the news, "cast aside"? It may be true, most people holding those candles didn't know those lost. But maybe they know someone who did. Have you never felt a pang of compassion for anyone known to have gone through a terrible tragedy, just because you didn't know them? I am guessing you most certainly have. By the way, maybe some those those candle "holders" did know those young people. I'm not here to get on your case. But I dare to remind you that just because these kids happened to be swept up into the news - regardless of why, or who their parents are, or whom else went to their school - there's a compassionate person within you that won't react in such a cynical manner - if you just let that other person out, instead. That is a lot harder to do - takes some vulnerability. But at the end of the day, it may leave you a little fuller in your soul than the

[hbssl]

01:26 PM on 05/14/2012

Were they drinking or using drugs? Have they all been tested? Someone should look into this.

[A-Voice-of-reason]

12:32 PM on 05/14/2012

Literally the only thing I can think of that would cause this would be a sleeping driver or a random loose sheep. NZ highway roads are the emptiest roads I've ever been on(even more than the middle of America), there is literally nothing out there, and the island doesn't have much in the way of wildlife, most of the animals there are farm or domestic..

[GOODDOC1]

02:24 AM on 05/15/2012

What about a tire blowing out, or something wrong with the car?