Published: 3/25/2023 3:18:15 PM
A Concord High graduate who was a freshman at Keene State College died following a car crash with a logging truck.
Kelsey Mayer’s family announced her passing on Saturday. She was 18 years old.
“The world is a lot dimmer, as we have lost a huge light in our lives,” her aunt, Jen Albino, wrote on an online fundraiser for the family.
Mayer was traveling westbound on Route 9 Thursday morning in a Chevy Cruze at the same time an unloaded logging truck was backing into a nearby logging site, according to New Hampshire State Police.
The logging truck appeared to be blocking the westbound travel lane when the crash occurred.
Mayer was taken to Concord Hospital after being trapped in the car for 90 minutes as rescuers tried to free her from the wreck.
“She fought with all she had but unfortunately succumbed to her injuries,” Albino wrote. “Kelsey was an amazing soul who loved passionately.”
The passenger in the vehicle, Allison Yanski, 19, sustained serious, non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to Cheshire Medical Center.
Both young women graduated from Concord High and attended Keene State College. They played on the Keene State women’s soccer team together.
“For our campus community, this is an unimaginable loss. Words are hard to find. Our thoughts and love are with Kelsey’s family and our attention is focused fully on helping those Keene State individuals closest to Kelsey to process this tragedy,” college spokesman Paul Miller said in an email Saturday.
Concord High administrators said counselors would be available to any students,
“We understand that there may be students having a hard time processing this event and many other students who know the victims of the accident,” school officials wrote on Friday.
“We are certainly keeping the two graduates in our thoughts.”
State police said the crash occurred on Route 9 between the junctions of Route 123 North and Route 123 South in Stoddard around 4:45 a.m.
The operator of the tractor-trailer, Donald Warner, 44, of Antrim, was uninjured. The crash remains under investigation by the state police.