On Wednesday, Sept. 20, at approximately 3:30 p.m., a car traveling up College Hill Road faced a head-on collision with a student’s vehicle that was traveling downhill toward the Clinton Village.
The student’s vehicle held two passengers, both Hamilton students. Sarah Creamer ’26 was driving the vehicle. The other vehicle carried four passengers, a father and three children. Edgar Vargas, a resident of Rome, NY, was driving the car. All parties involved in the crash were injured.
The crash occurred on the bend in College Hill Road below Bundy Cafe. Vargas’s vehicle drifted into the opposite lane, striking Creamer’s vehicle. Head of Campus Safety, Frank Coots, cleared up the ambiguity regarding the crash asserting that “it was definitely his vehicle that went into our student’s vehicle.”
Following the crash, one of the parties involved called 911 immediately, notifying the Kirkland Police Department of the crash. The police department then contacted Hamilton’s Campus Safety Department, and “within seconds, resources were dispatched,” according to Coots.
All passengers were taken by ambulance to local hospitals. The Hamilton students received care at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Hartford. Vargas and two of the children in the other vehicle were taken to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Utica.
A helicopter landed on Minor Field to airlift a one-year-old child from Vargas’s vehicle to the Syracuse Upstate Medical Trauma Center. The child’s mother works for Parkhurst Dining Services on campus and was able to accompany the child in the helicopter to the Syracuse medical center. The child is currently still receiving care and is in stable condition. The other parties were provided medical care and released from the hospital the same day as the collision.
Coots reported that the Hamilton students were “very sore the following day, which is very typical of being in a crash.” He emphasized that it was “a traumatic event” for everyone involved, “both physically and emotionally.”
He also noted that the Kirkland Police Department is conducting an investigation regarding the crash and has interviewed members of Campus of Safety who were on the scene. Currently, no tickets have been issued.
When asked about the frequency of crashes on College Hill Road, Coots asserted that “when you have a main thoroughfare in and out of campus like College Hill Road, crashes do happen. Generally they’re minor in nature. But, you know, we’ve had a student struck in the crosswalk.”
Campus Safety and Hamilton’s administration are having conversations about lowering the speed limit. It is a cumbersome process that requires involvement of state officials, but Hamilton is taking measures toward this goal.
Coots reported that Hamilton is generating a “master plan” for its campus, which includes collecting traffic data that captures the “amount of vehicles that use the road at any given day, at any given time during that day.” With this data, Hamilton can make an empirically grounded argument for reducing speed limits. In the meantime, Coots urged vehicle operators to take extra caution when driving through campus, especially during the busy periods of the day. “Between 9:50 and 10:15 a.m. That’s probably one of the busiest times as well as lunch hour. You know that. You have to be prepared. You’re going to have to wait. The number one concern is the pedestrians.”