Local News

What we know about the 5 killed in the wrong-way crash

Families, friends, and communities are in mourning after state police identified the five young people who were killed when a car driving the wrong way on I-495 in Middleborough crashed head-on into another car early Monday morning.

Four of the young adults killed in the crash were college students. According to police, Kraig Diggs, 20, of Paxton and Osterville, was driving a Mercury Sable with his fellow college students as passengers: Jordan Galvin-Jutras, 19, Jordan Fisher, 19, and Corey Licata, 18. The driver of the wrong-way car was identified Tuesday as Valantein Burson, 31, of Fall River.

Here’s what we know about the victims and driver so far.

Kraig Diggs, 20, Paxton and Osterville

Diggs, who was studying business at Anna Maria College, was driving his group of friends back to their colleges after a weekend on Cape Cod. They had left the Middleborough home of Diggs’s mother on Sunday night, his father told The Boston Globe. Diggs was planning to drop off his cousin, Fisher, and Fisher’s friend, Licata, at Becker College in Worcester before driving back with his cousin and classmate, Galvin-Jutras, to their school.

The 20-year-old sophomore was a 2015 graduate of Barnstable High School, where he played football with Galvin-Jutras.

Barnstable MA 10/24/16 Craig Diggs was in a fatal car accident early this morning in Middleborough when a wrong way driver slammed into their car head on Interstate 495 killing all four people their car and the wrong way driver.

Kraig Diggs.

“He lit up the room,” Kip Diggs, of Osterville, told the Globe about his son. “He had one of those smiles that you just gravitate to, and you start talking. He was very respectful and just a good boy.”

Kip Diggs described his son to the Cape Cod Times as a “good athlete,” and a “kindhearted, good person” who was “trying to make himself and his family proud.”

“He made me happy,” he told CBS Boston. “He was working to excel for himself the best he could be, and that’s all I could ever ask.”

Anna Maria released a statement about the deaths of the students Monday night.

“The entire Anna Maria College community is devastated by the news of the tragic accident that took the lives of two of our students,” the statement said. “We also grieve for the other young people who lost their lives last night,” a spokesperson for Anna Maria College wrote in a press release. “During this time of sadness, let us turn to our faith and our Anna Maria family for support as we mourn for this loss. We pray for them, their families and all of those involved in the accident.”

Barnstable MA 10/24/16 A undated photo of Jordan Galvin-Jutras who was one of our High School Interns at COMM FD from Fall of 2014 to Spiring 2015. Galvin was in a fatal car accident early this morning in Middleborough when a wrong way driver slammed into their car head on Interstate 495 killing 5 people.

Jordan Galvin-Jutras.

Jordan Galvin-Jutras, 19, of Hyannis

Galvin-Jutras, Diggs’s cousin, was also a sophomore at Anna Maria College. He was studying fire science and worked as an intern with the Centerville-Osterville-Marstons Mills Fire Department during his high school senior year.

“He did anything that a firefighter on duty was doing,” Michael Winn, fire chief, told the Globe. “Whatever they were doing, he was doing … he was embracing all of it. He was really, really eager and excited about his future.”

Anna Maria’s vice president of student success, Andrew Klein, told NECN that both students were “very popular, very visible on campus.”

“There’s very few people who don’t feel really touched by this,” he said. “It’s hard to deal with every day.”

Galvin-Jutras’s godmother, Rachael Devaney, of Onset, described to the Times the 19-year-old as a young man with “an amazing number of friends.”

Barnstable High School officials are providing support services for members of their community affected by the deaths of Galvin-Jutras and Diggs, who both graduated in 2015.

Barnstable MA 10/24/16 (DO NOT USE PHOTO UNTIL WE HAVE CONFIRMATION CHECK WITH DAVID DAHL) Jordan Fisher (cq), 19 of Harwich was in a fatal car accident early this morning in Middleborough when a wrong way driver slammed into their car head on Interstate 495 killing all four people their car and the wrong way driver. Photo courtsey Cape Cod Times

Jordan Fisher.

Jordan Fisher, 19, of Harwich

Fisher was a freshman business major at Becker College. His father, Rodney Fisher, of Harwich, told the Globe that his son was “basically the most wonderful son I ever could imagine.”

“I loved him to death, more than life itself,” Rodney Fisher said. “He was taken away tragically.”

Fisher, who was described by his father as also being related to Diggs and Galvin-Jutras, was known for his love of basketball, playing for the Monomoy Regional High School basketball team before college. He also attended a secondary school academy out west, his father told the Times.

“Anybody that met him would tell you the same thing, he was a giving person, a loving person, and I miss him,” he told CBS Boston.

Corey Licata, 18, of West Babylon, New York

Licata was a freshman, with Fisher, at Becker College. The college’s senior vice president, Nancy Crimmin, addressed the media on campus around 1:30 p.m., according to MassLive.

“Our thoughts are with the families of these two young men who had just joined our campus communities to begin their college studies, this fall,” she said.

Licata was studying interactive media, the school said in a statement. He was also a 2016 graduate of St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School in West Islip, New York , Nan Doherty, the principal, told the Globe.

“His coach and friends remember him as being a positive contributing team member and friend who was always determined to contribute to his team’s success,” Doherty said.

Valantein Burson, driving of wrong-way vehicle in accident on 495

Valantein Burson.

Valantein Burson, 31, of Fall River

Burson was a Stoughton native who was described by her father as a standout soccer player and “gentle person.”

“She was very quiet and very intelligent,” Jewell Burson told the Globe. “She was a very gentle person. She [didn’t] speak ill of other people.”

Burson’s mother, Vivienie Thorpe, told the Globe that her daughter had recently landed her dream job working as a counselor for prisoners at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater.

“She went to college and grad school to dedicate her life to making a difference,” Thorpe said. “She wanted to shed a light on mental illness.”

Burson was one of three siblings. Her brother, Jason, died earlier this year in Georgia after an illness, the Globe reported.

Police said the crash remains under investigation, and that investigators are still trying to determine how Burson ended up traveling in the wrong direction.

To comment, please create a screen name in your profile

Conversation

This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com