Worcester Woman Answers Door, Killed By SUV

By Karen Anderson, WBZ-TV

April 29, 2011 5:50 PM

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WORCESTER (CBS) – A woman hit by an SUV at her Worcester home Thursday night has died, police said.

John Pappas was going to check on his neighbor, 83 year old Rosemary Turner Thursday night to see how she was doing. He dropped in on her at least twice a week to help her out.

WBZ-TV’s Karen Anderson reports

He had just knocked and Rosemary was opening the door, when he heard a harrowing sound. An SUV was flying through the air towards him. It careened over an island, across four lanes of traffic, through Rosemary’s hard and through her front door.

John jumped out of the way, but couldn’t help Rosemary. He landed on the grass, his leg throbbing. “I was just thinking my gosh, she’s in there. It’s right where she was standing.”

He was stunned when emergency crews arrived to see Rosemary Turner wheeled out on stretcher. She was calling his name. “I said you’re okay I’ll see you at the hospital.”

Turner, who was pinned under the 2008 Nissan Pathfinder for 45 minutes, was in critical condition when she was taken to UMass Medical Center, but she passed away later in the night.

The driver, Hari Dhakal, says she tried to stop, but believes his brakes failed. “There was something wrong with the break. I jammed the break. And the car didn’t stop.” He says he does not believe he was pressing the gas pedal instead of the break. Dhakal, who is getting his master’s degree, is a husband and father of two. He says he was driving to pick up his wife at the time, and drives down that road every day. He spoke about the crash, obviously upset as he walked away.

Police said alcohol was not involved in the crash, but speed may have played a factor.Officers returned to the scene to collect more evidence. They will also get a warrant to inspect the SUV’s black box, which contains information about braking, speed and acceleration. That is expected to take several weeks.

Worcester Woman Answers Door, Killed By SUV

Italo

When will this madness stop? PLEASE, get these giant truck-based vehicles driven by non-truckdriving-trained drivers, these SUVs-from-hell, off the roads once and for all.

Andrew

thats really not a fair statement. This is definitely a tragedy don’t get me wrong and I send my condolences to her family, but the fact that he was driving an SUV is irrelevant. If anything, SUVs are good for seeing more of the road and are overall safer. This was a freak accident. What would your reaction be if this was in a compact or a sedan?

BJD

Yeah I don’t think the fact that it was an SUV has anything to do with it. Probably the fact that he was speeding in what sounds like a residential neighborhood is.
kulin

You do understand that the increased visibility comes at the cost of the visibility for drivers in normal sized cars?
Berni Strunz

I cannot Believe the SPELLING ….drove thru her hard Meaning Yard …BREAK ..hello BREAK is spelled BRAKE …..please hire a 3 year old to proof read your CHITT
C B

Speaking of SPELLING, How about “through” instead of “thru”?
Scott K.

Wrong, generally speaking, SUV’s are less safe than cars while giving the image of safety. Futhermore SUV’s are involved in a dispraportionate amount of roll over accidents, the most deadly type of accident there is.
Michael Mirenzi

SUVs are are the least safe vehicles to other drivers and pedestrians, period. This has been a proven fact. They are almost uncontrollable when the driver needs to brake quickly.
Rick M

Id shut off the key/ engine in a manner as to not lock the steering wheel then pull the E brake and steer clear of any homes,pedestrians , or other cars.
Just like I did when the throttle got stuck in my 92′ Mustang GT Hi performance 5.0 I didn’t panic and freeze as it sped out of control I took control of the situation killed the ignition and steered it to a safe spot with no power steering or power brakes. I can easily see an uncoordinated person panicking and just freezing up and riding it out in that same situation .Just like the guy who called 911 when his throttle was stuck on the highway with his entire family in the car . “they all tragically died that day” I never understood why no one told that guy to shut off the engine!!! & if there are cars that can not be shut off when they are running by turning the key to the OFF position, for what ever reason then that’s a big time law suit in my opinion because ignition off should do just that, shut the cars engine off. The experience in my Mustang is one of the reasons I will never buy one of those push button ignition cars.

ktalgsto

Seriously? With a comment like that I hope you aren’t smart enough to pass a driver’s test to get a license…

Berni Strunz

this Karen dummy (the writer) OBVIOUSLY skipped grade school ….hard =Yard ,break =brake ….somebody date this moron and teach her 1st grade spelling
Bob Nelson

Don’t know if the reporter wrote this up or if someone (an intern or other kind of worker at WBZ) transcribed what was said on the video clip. Who knows.
Melissa

I agree with the comment about the writer. If you’re going to be a writer you should know correct grammar and spelling. Wow…

Ralph M

I take it you feel foolish and less than manly, driving your prius. Get a life

Mike

Do you feel more manly paying $100 a tank for gas? We all know what little man/big truck means. We can thank the drivers of SUVs these past 15 years for gas being as high as it is today.
michelle

now days alot of vehicles take a $100 to fill up :-/
Lotta Lipflappin

@Mike: Mike you mincing little poofter, the reason gas prices are high is because we import and produce little energy of our own PLUS we haven’t built a refinery in 35 years because of the prohibitive costs due to the EPA. In America we are still free for the moment to choose what vehicle we wish to drive but as long as we keep producing dolts like you that won’t go on for much longer.
Russ

Mike said “We can thank the drivers of SUVs these past 15 years for gas being as high as it is today.” No, we can thank the nitwit in the White House for the price of gas having risen over 100% in the 2 1/2 years since he took office! THAT is the source of high gasoline prices. Now go back to your Nutella.

DaveNYUSA

You really are not THAT stupid, are you?
Eric B.

Italo. In what language does that mean idiot? A Pathfinder is a rather small SUV that can readily be driven by anyone who can operate a car. Is not giant, or a truck, or from hell, ……on any road.
Pete

Why do you comment when you are clueless.The vehicle was a freakin Nissan.It isn’t a full sized car,it’s an import.People like you making uninformed comments are all the MADNESS.

Michael Mirenzi

Caprice, Impala, and Sebring are all full size cars. Obviously this SUV is bigger than those. You don’t have the foggiest idea what you’re talking about.

Lotta Lipflappin

That SUV doesn’t weigh anymore than a full sized luxury car you panty wearing powder puff. I drive a dodge diesel pickup truck that weighs more than that stupid “SUV” and it has NEVER left my garage to go on a killing rampage. Buy a brain on the black market before you post again.
Russ

OH come on, a Nissan Pathfinder is not a “giant” vehicle and surely does not require any special training. The fact that it was an SUV had nothing to do with the accident. Perhaps the old woman would have been okay if a Ford Focus had run her down…?
Suckit

I can’t believe how stupid you are. Many of us in rural areas tow trailers on a regular basis, need the ground clearance, etc. Why should we have to change our lives because someone has an accident and happens to be driving an SUV. People like you are so stupid and can’t be reasoned with. If you were standing behind that door instead of that woman, it would’ve been a positive thing.,Not all of us can fit in a tree huggers car like a volt or Ford Festiva. I’m 6’7″ 270 lbs. I don’t fit in little cars. .

Mark

Has he ever heard of ‘downshifting’?

Good grief from the picture how fast was he going? I hope they check out his “I lost my brakes story” carefully.

Cynic

Brakes CAN bypass occasionally,but flying down the road doesn’t help either.
Sevin

I doubt there was time to think about downshifting. Have you ever been in a car wreck or slid on black ice? All you think is “how bad is this going to hurt?” You’re trying to control the vehicle, but there are only seconds to react.

Michael Mirenzi

Actually, yes. I’ve never had a problem doing the things I need to do to maintain control of my car, including downshifting, putting the car in neutral, pumping the brakes, steering in to the skid, etc etc.

If you are not capable of doing these things then you shouldn’t be behind the wheel. I don’t care if that eliminates 90% of the drivers on the road.
Gorddo

Michael you seem like the kind of guy that has never had trouble doing anything, ever, at anytime in your life. I’m also willing to bet you do most things better than anyone else ever has, or will do. You probably have a room full of awards and trophys surounded by walls with plenty of pictures of yourself too. Congratulations to you and I apologize on behalf of the rest of us.
Brian Miller

Not time?????? The story said he careened over an island (1), across FOUR lanes of traffic (2) and across her Front Yard (3). If there wasn’t time to use his brain to put it in NEUTRAL (and he his studying for his masters, so he must have at least half a light bulb lit), then obviously he was SPEEDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t think they need to really look at that black box then, it’s obvious if he had no time to reach next to him and make a QUICK shift to NEUTRAL, then he was probably going at least 80.

T.I .

must be a real problem with these vehicles nissan just recalled 20,000 due to them losing control hmm maybe they will find this amongst all the complaints they recieve.
Alx1775

Don’t know the specifics of this case. Maybe he was speeding, or maybe his accelerator stuck, or maybe he hit the gas instead of the brake. Unlikely but possible. What is unlikely that anyone – even a habitual speeder – would be traveling fast enough into a T-intersection to go airborne and vault over a woman’s yard to smash her front door.

This is why I drive a standard, and probably always will. If my engine races, I can always downshift or disengage the engine. Plus, I get better than 28mpg out of my SUV – another advantage of a manual transmission.

Carole Plouffe

I’m surprised the age of the driver was mentioned, since he’s not a senior citizen.

John

39 years old
Berni Strunz

another IDIOT phd and no brain ..shift to Neutral or Park even ..dummy

Cynthia

Let me see, you’re traveling at a high rate of speed (even 40 is high in an emergency), you’re trying to stop and you want them to shut down the fear and emotions to say “car – neutral”, by the time the brain registered it would have been too late anyway. sheesh
Richard

When your car is going at a high rate of speed the gear will not change due to the rate of speed the tranmission componeents are operating at….Dummy

Chris

Maybe this is just me, but if I lost my brakes I’d aim for something other than the front door of someone’s house.

dan

YEAH, NO KIDDING..I WOULD RATHER HIT A TREE
Cyndi

You are right. I would rather flip my car then accidentally injure/kill someone else in the process.

Pepaw

What happened to the person she was answering the door for?

Dan

GOOD POINT PEPAW

Michael Mirenzi

If either of you had read the article you would know.

matty

really dude, you couldn’t pull the “broken ankle” out of a few paragraph article, and then dare to comment, boo
Gorddo

Read the story….”John jumped out of the way, but couldn’t help Rosemary. He landed on the grass, his leg throbbing. “I was just thinking my gosh, she’s in there. It’s right where she was standing.”

Bud

Maybe they really meant ‘break’ and that’s why the car didn’t stop. If only the driver had hit the brake instead of the break!

Berni Strunz

and it drove thru rosemary’s HARD …duhh Karen …u r insipid…..see my Yard..

KennyG

What IDIOT wrote this article?? The device that stops a vehicle is a BRAKE not a BREAK!!!

frolona

yeah was the driver male or female “SHE tried to stop but believes HIS brakes failed”

Belky

My finger smells like poop, weird!
Swamp Donkey

“It careened over an island, across four lanes of traffic, through Rosemary’s ((((hard))))) and through her front door.”

Worst editing job of all time award for this article. What’s a hard?
Cyndi

Yeah saw that error to but it says that he is a husband and father of 2.

eliz1bef

The article’s a complete mess. Run-on sentences, pronoun gender disagreements, spelling errors; it’s like a Whitman’s sampler of poor grammar and usage. If an editor looked at this and let it fly, they should be demoted.

Phil

Cars don’t have a “black box” like mentioned in this article.

Sjefke

Actually, Phil, they do. The computer that controls the SRS (air bag system) gets a number of inputs, such as the car’s speed and accelleration, gas pedal setting, brake pedal, and so on. It uses these to determine which, if any, of the car’s air bags needs to be activated and when.

It also saves this data for thirty to sixty seconds, overwriting the old data as new data comes in – so when it is triggered by an accident it always has a record of what the car and driver were doing in the time immediately before the accident. This information can be downloaded from the chip in the car and used by investigators to determine the actual cause of the accident – and by law enforcement as evidence to charge the car’s driver if appropriate.
Michael Mirenzi

The ECU is a black box. You can glean from it the speed the vehicle was traveling and what pedals and other inputs were being used at the time of impact and for a minute or two before hand.

How do you people get to be so ignorant?

The Observer

Uh, typically ignorance is a starting point, not a destination so one doesn’t ‘get’ ignorant, one IS ignorant.

And for you to spout out that information as if it were as common as knowing how to boil water really ought to dial down your ignorance several levels. We all didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night.
Gorddo

Hey Michael, are you one of those?

josh

yes they do have a black box. i know cause they had to pull the one in my suv when i got hit head on june 12th 2009 on arsenal st.

David

I agree! Not only does this article crack me up with its messed up grammar but you guys that are commenting are making me scream with laughter! The best one yet was the Holiday Inn comment. Hilarious!

patriot 23

what we need is a bunch of legislation to correct this problem as soon as they get done persecuting baseball players, buying banks and car company’s then we can get down to the business of making or vehicles more complicated. How about a commitee made up of people who have never worked a day in their lives to berate and question the people who are forced to implement their foolish ideas.
Jbacks3

“Break”? As in gibe me a…. who proofreads these articles?

frolona

probably the same person who proof read your comment. I believe it’s give not gibe

Lisa

I guess no one thought to edit this story before posting. One would think that a reporter and writer would know the difference between “break” and “brake” among other obvious mistakes in the story.
Lana G

don,t believe everything i read and see on this machine
http://arthur2rcasc.wordpress.com/2011/04/30/w2-5-10a/ w2.5.10a – well i did request body bags « Arthur2rcasc's Blog

[...] Worcester Woman Answers Door, Killed By SUV « CBS Boston and an old man was hit by a door and died, as did a man get his head caught in an elevator – must not have been Jesus – he does not seem to like SUV’s [...]
Brian Miller

Like all those run away car stories that Toyota took a big hit over…..as has already been stated, none of those people thought to put it in “NEUTRAL”, nor did this guy studying to get his masters!!!! How can you be going to College and not know about “Neutral”?????????.
Brian Miller

Look at all those steps to that house, and the facts of the story (4 lanes of traffic, island, front yard) and the only question remains is……exactly how fast did that car have to be going to do all that?????

I already threw out there….80, any other guesses?
Gorddo

I’m willing to bet the reporter did not make the entry online. They have interns and other “cheap” labor to do that. Doesn’t look so good for the reporter who gets the by line though.
UseYourBrain

SHAME on the author of this abysmally written article!
I had to read it several times to make any sense of it.
There’s, of course, the previously mentionned “break/brake”, “through/thru”, Hard/yard”.
It also seems as if the writer can’t get the gender of the driver right: “The driver, Hari Dhakal, says she tried to stop, but believes his brakes failed” Who tried to stop? The victim?? Pffff.
And the syntax! “He was driving to pick up his wife at the time” Why? Is she not his wife any longer? How about: “At the time of the accident, he was driving to pick up his wife.”
“He was stunned when emergency crews arrived to see Rosemary Turner wheeled out on stretcher” I would be stunned too if I were the emergency crews and I arrived to see the victim being wheeled out! Urghhhh! How about “When emergency crews arrived, Pappas was stunned to see Rosemary being wheeled out on a stretcher.”
So many mistakes, so little time…Both the reporter and the editor are illiterate cretins. Go back to elementary school.

Mike

Indeed. Simply horrible. That is the first thing that jumpd out out me was the dismal use of grammar, spelling, subject verb/ agreement. The writer should be in an adult education/GED class to finish what they obviously missed in high school the first time around. How can an editor allow such rubbish to be published? The abhorrent lack of skills displayed by the writer completely over power the intent of the article.

W B M

i believe, when all is said and done, and all the ludicrous post-accident rhetoric is filed away, and after they investigate the air bag computer, they will most likely find that the driver was incorrect and actually was jamming on the accelerator, and not the “break”. still doesn’t explain why he didn’t take his foot off all pedals, put it into neutral, etc. – this is evidently a bad and dangerous driver who should not have a license.

प्रबिण पोक्वल

i believe, when all is said and done, and all the ludicrous post-accident rhetoric is filed away, and after they investigate the air bag computer, they will most likely find that the driver was incorrect and actually was jamming on the accelerator, and not the “break”. still doesn’t explain why he didn’t take his foot off all pedals, put it into neutral, etc. – this is evidently a bad and dangerous driver who should not have a license.

kathi

why can’t we spell, don’t you have spell check. He, she which was it. Did the SUV go over the hard or yard. Get with it how much do they pay you to be dumn

80sgirl

Pot meet dumn (sumb) kettle)

amanda

wow. wider and deeper. it just keeps getting better.

as you see, we all make spelling errors and typos.

Avirra

Spell check doesn’t help in this case – they used the wrong words, but the words they used wrong were spelled correctly.

Cassie McIntyre

Wow, Karen Anderson needs to find a new line of work.
http://botd.wordpress.com/2011/05/01/top-posts-1826/ Top Posts — WordPress.com

[...] Worcester Woman Answers Door, Killed By SUV WORCESTER (CBS) – A woman hit by an SUV at her Worcester home Thursday night has died, police said. [...]
charles

I’ve someone wasn’t dead because of this, it be laughable.
Trisha Tefer Wisebaker

Hello? Proofread anyone? Sheesh, whoever wrote this should be FIRED.

Having said that – this was such a tragic accident! Very sad.
me

Quotes from the story:
It careened over an island, across four lanes of traffic, through Rosemary’s hard and through her front door.
“There was something wrong with the break. I jammed the break. And the car didn’t stop.” He says he does not believe he was pressing the gas pedal instead of the break.

The vehicle went through her HARD? How about yard? And I really love the break! I have never seen a break petal, how about a brake petal? What grade are the proof readers currently in? Can’t be higher than 4th.