NU student dies in crash
A Northeastern University student was killed and two others were left critically injured Saturday morning after their car slid into oncoming traffic on Route 2 in Greenfield while they were driving to a ski competition, according to Greenfield police.
The three Northeastern ski team competitors were driving west on Route 2, known as Mohawk Trail, in Greenfield in a 2001 Ford Mustang when it collided with a 1993 Audi traveling in the eastbound lane, police said.
Michael Costa, 18, died after he was thrown from the back seat of the Mustang driven by 19-year-old Keith Bertolino. Costa, Bertolino and Kristina Brodsky, also 19, were taken to Franklin County Medical Center, where Costa was pronounced dead. Bertolino and Brodsky both suffered brain swelling, spinal cord and lung injuries, as well as broken bones, said Robert Fox, a Northeastern sophomore and ski team member.
The driver of the Audi, 32-year-old Lamia Holland of Shelburne, was also taken to the hospital, where she was released after being treated for minor injuries.
“They think Keith lost control of the car, and he didn’t spin out but fishtailed into oncoming traffic,” Fox said. “The lady came around the corner and hit the back end of the car.” Fox said Costa was not wearing his seatbelt.
Bertolino and Brodsky were airlifted to Bay State Medical Center in Springfield and have been kept sedated. Fox said Bertolino was not paralyzed but would be hospitalized for weeks. He said Brodsky was stable.
“It has been really rough,” Fox said. “Right now we’re just happy that those two are doing OK. It looks like they’re pretty much out of the woods.
“It hasn’t set in all the way,” he added. Fox said the team would meet with Northeastern counselors during the week.
The three were en-route to the Berkshire East Ski Area in Charlemont to compete in the fifth of six races organized by the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association.
Northeastern University officials did not return a call Sunday and had not released any statement about the accident.
Aaron Kellogg John Tozzi
Boston gets new top cop
Former Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety Kathleen O’Toole will become Boston’s first female police commissioner, filling the post vacated by Commissioner Paul Evans in November, Mayor Thomas Menino announced Sunday.
“Her unique background presents a global perspective on policing and management that will serve as the basis for change in the department,” Menino said in a statement.
The announcement comes less than a week after Acting Commissioner James Hussey was criticized for monitoring last week’s post-Super Bowl riots by phone instead of being on the job.
O’Toole, 49, beat out Hussey, Lowell Police Superintendent Edward Davis and Boston Police Captain James Claiborne for the post once held by Evans, who left in November to take a post in London.
The new commissioner, who was also considered for the position 10 years ago before Evans was chosen, comes to the job from her private consulting practice, O’Toole Associates, LLC, which is based in Boston and Dublin, Ireland. In addition to working as a Boston police officer, O’Toole served as chief of the Metropolitan Police in the late 1980s and as a lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts State Police after it absorbed the Metropolitan Police.
“I am always proud to say I began my career with the Boston Police Department,” O’Toole said in a statement from Menino’s office. “Nothing could have prepared me for a return like this … As commissioner, I hope to build on the established successes of the department and to take it to new heights.”
O’Toole headed Menino’s Boston Fire Review Commission, which was charged with addressing accusations of racism, sexism and homophobia in the Boston Fire Department. She lives in South Boston and has remained a senior advisor to Menino.
She was also part of Gov. Mitt Romney’s transition team and serves on the Governor’s Council on Capital Punishment, a group Romney formed in September to explore reinstating the death penalty in Massachusetts based on scientific evidence.
The new commissioner holds degrees from Boston College and the New England School of Law, and she served as director for the Boston College Alumni Association.
O’Toole has also advised the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division on racial profiling – a controversial issue in Massachusetts after Attorney General Tom Reilly announced a crackdown on racial profiling traffic stops last month.
O’Toole also served on the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland, known as the Patten Commission, to foster security in Northern Ireland.
John Tozzi
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