4th Yale Student Dies of Injuries in Crash

A fourth person has died as a result of a Connecticut traffic collision involving a sport utility vehicle driven by a Newport Beach college student and a tractor-trailer rig driven by a man from Gardena.

Nicholas G. Grass, 19, of Holyoke, Mass., died Saturday.

Sean Fenton, 20, a Corona del Mar High School graduate, died Friday. He had been an all-county athlete as a discus thrower and was attending Yale University when the Chevy Tahoe he was driving slammed into a jackknifed tractor-trailer on icy Interstate 95 in Fairfield.

The driver of the flatbed rig, Armando Salgado, 33, of Gardena was hospitalized in satisfactory condition after the Friday morning crash, police said.

Fenton and eight passengers in the SUV were all Yale University athletes.

“I just don’t know what to say. He was a very big-hearted man and he’d do anything for anybody,” said his mother, Janice Fenton. “He was very, very smart. He was studying computer science. I don’t know what he wanted to do when he finished college -- he was sort of tossing things around.”

Neither Salgado nor his family members could be reached for comment Saturday.

Fenton played football for Yale as a freshman. He later joined the Yale Entrepreneurial Society, designed Web pages for Yale groups and was known to help fellow students who had computer problems. “He was usually the one to be the designated driver, to take responsibility, to help everyone out,” said his roommate, Walter Badgett.

The crash is being investigated by the Connecticut State Police and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Police have yet to determine the cause of the accident and declined to say whether alcohol or a lack of experience driving in wintry conditions was a factor for either driver.

Salgado was hauling a load of generators when he lost control of the rig in snowy and icy conditions. The truck partially crossed the concrete barrier that separates the highway.

Fenton and his schoolmates were returning from a Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity event in New York. Classmates said the victims were all pledges or members of the fraternity.

Of the passengers, two students remained in critical condition Saturday, while three suffered less than critical injuries.