Update: Third Acton-Carlisle High School student dies after Florida crash

Concordians are mourning a group of high school seniors killed in a crash on a Florida highway just days into their April break. 

Schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter identified the students who lost their lives as Jimmy McIntosh, Maisey O’Donnell, and Hannah Wasserman. 

A fourth student involved in the accident, who remained in a Florida hospital as of press time, was in critical condition, Hunter said. 

In an email to families, Hunter called the crash devastating “beyond what we can understand.”

A Florida Highway Patrol crash report didn’t include the students’ names but said all four people in the car were 18 years old.  

The crash occurred shortly before 9:30 p.m. Monday on a stretch of Highway 98 near Inlet Beach, a coastal locale in the western Florida panhandle. Police said the teens were westbound in an SUV when they collided with a tractor-trailer that was making a U-turn in the highway’s paved median. 

The SUV careened across the median and the opposite lanes of traffic before coming to a stop near a treeline.

Wasserman and McIntosh were pronounced dead at the scene. Emergency responders took the injured students to Ascension Sacred Heart Bay Hospital in Panama City, Florida. 

Hunter announced Tuesday afternoon that O’Donnell had also succumbed to her injuries. She said O’Donnell was in the organ donation program, “as her family hopes that it will give meaning to these meaningless tragedies.” 

School officials said the fourth student remained in critical condition in the hospital Wednesday morning.

“The loss of Jimmy, Hannah, and Maisey is a profound tragedy, and their memory will forever be etched in our hearts,” wrote CCHS co-principals Katie Stahl and Brian Miller in a Wednesday email to the community. “Please keep our student who is in critical condition in your thoughts and heart as she continues to heal.”

A stellar diver

O’Donnell was an outstanding member of the Acton-Carlisle swimming and diving team, which won its third straight Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) North Sectionals championship this year. She will be posthumously honored next month as The Boston Globe’s Athlete of the Year for diving, the paper reported. 

Coach Kim Donovan told The Acton Bridge that O’Donnell “stood out as a superior athlete because she was persistent, committed, and resilient. In addition to her drive to be the best she could be, she possessed grace, poise, and a delicate charm that was the essence of her character.”

Donovan said O’Donnell had secured the Dual County League and MIAA North Sectional titles and was Division 1 state champion. She said the diving star “was committed to Williams College. She was loved by many, and she will be sorely missed in so many ways.” 

Head coach Joe Chirico of Boston Area Diving said that although O’Donnell “was the top high school diver in the state — and among the best in the nation — she was incredibly modest and was an amazing role model for her younger teammates.”

He said, “Maisey was exceptionally bright and was planning to attend Williams College this fall. We will all miss her terribly and will never forget her.”

Town Manager Kerry Lafleur, in a bulletin to the community, said one of the students had been “a valued member of our Recreation Department team. We grieve not only the loss of a bright young person with so much promise, but also a colleague whose presence, energy, and spirit enriched the lives of those around them.” 

Ongoing investigation

At the time of the fatal accident, McIntosh was driving and was wearing a seatbelt, according to the crash report. Police were not sure whether the other students were wearing seatbelts. 

Florida Highway Patrol Cpl. Matthew Whipple, one of the officers who responded to the crash scene, said the 19-year-old tractor-trailer driver was not injured. 

The driver is from DeFuniak Springs, Florida, roughly 30 miles north of Inlet Beach. A 23-year-old man from Panama City Beach, Florida, was a passenger in the tractor-trailer. He also avoided injury.

Whipple said police did not immediately cite the tractor-trailer driver, but the crash was under investigation.

Hunter said officials would offer grief counseling at CCHS on Wednesday and that counselors would return on Monday when classes resume. 

As the news spread, anguished friends and classmates turned to social media to express their love for those they’d lost. 

While the school community sought ways to heal and help, it appeared that someone may have also been attempting to capitalize on the tragedy. 

The superintendent warned in a Wednesday morning email that a GoFundMe purportedly set up to defray funeral costs for the Wasserman family “was not posted by the student named as the owner and is not connected to the families in our community.”

Christine M. Quirk, Rob Reinalda, and Celeste Katz Marston contributed reporting.