Liverpoool (WSYR-TV) - Victoria Deverso's death in a Monday afternoon car crash has hit her family and fellow students hard. She was a passenger in a vehicle that hit another head-on while trying to pass along Route 31 in the Town of Sullivan.
Deverso died Monday in a crash that also critically injured Chelsea Kuss, 18, of Syracuse, and Peggy Blume, 38. State Police have identified Kuss the driver of the Chevrolet Trailblazer that was passing vehicles while headed westbound on Route 31, and crashed head-on into Blume's minivan before being able to merge back into the westbound lane. Deverso was the passenger in Kuss's vehicle.
Tuesday, Kuss was upgraded to fair condition.
Victoria Deverso is the second student from Liverpool to die in a car crash in two years.
Samantha Reynolds was killed in a car crash with her family in April of 2008. She would have been a sophomore this year. Deverso was a junior. Some of the same Liverpool High School students knew both girls.
Usually, people make memorials at the scenes of crashes. There isn't one along Route 31. All that you can see at the scene of the tragic crash is some debris. Victoria's friends, instead, made a memorial online. The
Facebook page in her honor has hundreds of fans.
"I think that's how they grieve now. They grieve by communicating with each other with photos, with words, with text," said Maureen Patterson, assistant superintendent. "If they find sanity with that I think it's important."
As soon as the school was notified, it put a team of grief counselors together to help the students. "She had many, many friends, and that's what we're seeing pouring through the office today, children touched by her personality," said Patterson.
When Deverso's father, Chris Deverso, found out his daughter was skipping school in Sylvan Beach, he called her home and said to be back by 3 p.m. When he didn't hear from her, he was concerned. When he heard of the crash, he says he knew it was her.
Deverso went to her junior prom just two weeks ago. "She was so happy, so beautiful, so excited, I was so proud of her, it was one of the happiest moments," her father said, remembering.
But those moments seem like years ago now for her father, who is obviously devastated but doing what he can to be there for Victoria's biggest fan, her 10-year-old brother. "If there was ever a brother that loved his sister more than anything in this world, it was him," said Chris. "He loved her more than I've ever seen a brother love a sister, unconditionally, unconditionally."
Also helping Chris cope is that Facebook memorial. He says it shows him just how many lives Victoria touched and how many people loved her. "I'm proud that my daughter was a good person. That shows me a lot. She was popular, beautiful, she meant well, and that she was a good person and that's what I tried teaching her to be, just be a good person."
The district has counselors and pastors in place at the high school to help students and teachers. They're also reaching out to kids at Nate Perry School, because Victoria's brother goes there.
Liverpool did have a mock accident exercise planned for this Friday. The exercise lets students see the effects of a horrible car accident. Because those effects are all too real right now, the district has decided to postpone the mock crash until next week.
Funeral arrangements for Deverso have not yet been finalized.
