AHS rifle team OK after car accident

These Aiken High School rifle team students are OK after a traffic accident ended their chance to compete in the Navy National Rifle Championship in Ohio this weekend. Pictured above, from left, are Joshua Strickland, Kyle Burney, Sierra Woods, Cody Mills and Larry Lamb. Submitted photo.

Five Aiken High School NJROTC rifle team members and two are on their way home this morning - bruised and sore but otherwise OK after being involved an multi-car pileup in Ohio Saturday afternoon.

The students, ROTC Commander Tony Negron and a student's mother were on their way to the Navy National Rifle Championships in Port Clinton, Ohio. They were about 80 miles from their destination when a tractor-trailer plowed into the back of their Ford Expedition during an escalating snowstorm.

The students are Joshua Strickland, Larry Lamb, Kyle Burney, Sierra Woods and Cody Mills. Strickland and Woods' mother, Denise Blystone-Hogan, were taken by ambulance to a hospital as a precaution and were later treated and released.

As a result of the accident, the rifle team - which had won a Carolinas contest to qualify - was unable to compete in the national event. Also involved in the multi-vehicle accident was Saluda High School ROTC commander Jim Moore and one of his students, who had been traveling with the Aiken group. Moore and his student were not injured, Negron said.

"We're just really happy no one got hurt," Negron said. "We lost a couple of vehicles, but it could have been a lot worse."

The two South Carolina vehicles had gotten on I-80 on the Ohio turnpike. The light snow that had fallen earlier had started to come down hard, Negron said. He planned to take the next exit and wait out the storm at a gas station.

"But cars were stopping and sliding, and I managed to swerve and avoid everybody," he said. "Then we got slammed by the tractor-trailer and turned us completely around, shoving us into another vehicle and pushing both of us off the side of the road."

Early media reports indicated that as many as 20 vehicles were subsequently involved in the accident, injuring nearly two dozen people.

Negron said Strickland had an abrasion and cut on his head while Blystone-Hogan was experiencing back and neck pain. After they were transported, a tow truck later brought the students and instructors to a turnpike maintenance station.

Negron had notified the students' parents and his wife Toni, a travel agent. She arranged for a car service and a hotel room near the town of Twinsburg and later arranged for rental cars. After they checked in, Negron said, the car service driver took them to the hospital to see Strickland and Blystone-Hogan, and, again as a precaution, all were evaluated at the emergency room.

"The kids were fantastic throughout," said Negron. "Nobody panicked. It's disheartening that the kids couldn't compete. They had worked so hard for it all season. But at least they're OK."

Negron had purchased the Expedition himself for the specific purpose of transporting small groups of cadets, such as the rifle team, academic team and the color guard.

"We could be out of business for those teams," he said. "It's totaled."

Senior writer Rob Novit, a journalist for the past 41 years, joined the Aiken Standard staff in 2001. He covers education news and general assignments.