Almost a year after a 16-year-old Boscawen teen was seriously injured in a car crash on the Fourth of July, a friend who was driving that day is now facing criminal charges.
Tyler Daigle, 18, of Boscawen was indicted by a grand jury June 20 on two counts of second-degree assault and one count of reckless conduct in the crash that severely injured Corbin Raymond, according to court documents.
Prosecutors allege that Daigle was speeding and driving recklessly on River Road in Boscawen when he, Raymond and two other teens were headed to the river that day to go tubing. Court documents say Daigle was driving more than 50 mph. Raymond’s mother, Sadie, told the Monitor that one of the four boys in the car crash had an application on his smartphone – Life360 – that reported the car going close to 100 mph.
The 2005 Nissan Maxima that Daigle was driving veered off the road and crashed into a tree at about 11:30 a.m. that day. Two teens, including Raymond, had to be extricated using the Jaws of Life from the backseat, police said.
The other teens’ injuries were not life-threatening. Raymond was in serious condition because of trauma to his brain and internal bleeding. He was brought by ambulance to Concord Hospital, where doctors said he would not survive.
Raymond was airlifted to Boston Children’s Hospital, a Level One trauma hospital, where he endured 6½ hours of surgery and doctors still believed there was a slim chance of saving his life. Raymond had a fractured spine, broken collar bone, fractures in his skull, broken bones in his face, two broken shoulder blades, fractures in his rib cage, and later, an aneurysm and an infection in his finger from glass shards in the crash.
But after four months of surgeries and rehabilitation at two different Boston hospitals, he learned how to talk, walk and eat again.
Raymond returned home in November. He has been attending weekly speech, occupational and physical therapy. He graduated from Merrimack Valley High School last month.
In August, Raymond will meet with a neuropsychologist to do an extensive test that will help determine how much healing his brain has done – and what is still left to do, his family said.
He is still working on his short-term memory and regaining motor skills in his right arm, Raymond told the Monitor in April. A symptom of his brain injury has been that his right arm and hand has trouble following cues from his brain.
Sadie Raymond said one lesson she hopes people learn from her son’s story is the danger of speeding. Corbin doesn’t remember the crash itself, so they don’t know exactly why the car was traveling so fast. She assumes it was the boys fooling around.
She said she’d like to go to driver’s education classes and share Corbin’s story with students – especially teenage boys.
“We’re lucky that we have this positive outcome, but it’s usually not that way,” Sadie said in April. “Most people aren’t as lucky as Corbin was.”
If convicted, Daigle faces 3½ to 7 years in prison on each of the three charges. Daigle’s arraignment and bail hearing are scheduled for July 22 in Merrimack County Superior Court.