A former professor died Thursday night after falling out of a moving shuttle.
The 63-year-old woman, whose identity has not been released, fell out of a U campus shuttle at about 8:20 p.m., as it took a left turn from North Campus Drive to Mario Capecchi Drive, according to the U Police Department.
The woman was standing on the steps in front of the rear doors, since all of the shuttle seats were occupied. During the turn, she stumbled and reached out to grab a handle or a bar but failed. She fell against the doors, which gave way just enough for her to fall out.
“It happened so fast,” said Lauren McKay, a freshman who was sitting near the woman in the back of the shuttle. “She was there, and then she was gone. It could’ve happened to anyone.”
Alyssa Spencer, who was sitting between McKay and the woman, saw the woman fall and screamed. The shuttle driver stopped when he heard his passengers crying out that something terrible had happened.
“It was awful,” said Spencer, a junior in family studies. “I was really freaking out.”
U Police responded to the call. The woman, whose head had hit the ground, was alive but unconscious when paramedics arrived and transported her to the University Hospital emergency room. She died from her injuries about two hours later at the hospital, after she was taken off respiratory therapy.
U Police have not released the woman’s name, as they have not been able to identify her next of kin. Officers went to her apartment Thursday night hoping to find someone there, but she lives alone, said Sgt. Mike McPharlin. Investigators tried to figure out who her family members are by talking to her co-workers Friday, but so far, they’ve hit a brick wall.
She adopted an English name when she came to the U from China more than nine years ago, which complicates the search for her family. She was a professor at the U in 2000 and became a naturalized citizen in 2003 but was no longer working at the U at the time of her death, said U spokesman Remi Barron.
Mike Mangum/The Daily Utah ChronicleThe campus shuttles are being looked at after a former professor fell out of one and died. The shuttles undergo regular maintenance at mile intervals and state tests once a year.