Bus Hits Student After Pre-Game Party

A Harvard student whose foot was crushed by a bus outside a Boston club the night before the Harvard-Yale Game said she will likely remain in the hospital for another two weeks.

Rachel M. Riederer ’04 said doctors have told her that she will be able to walk again, although the extent of her mobility is still unknown.

She was leaving a Harvard-Yale party at a Lansdowne Street club—advertised in part by the A.D., the Delphic and the Owl, and also promoted by the Undergraduate Council —around 2 a.m. on Nov. 23 when the incident occurred.

Riederer said she was waiting in a crowd for a shuttle that was taking students back to Harvard.

“The bus pulled up really close to everybody and people started running forward with the bus,” Riederer said. “I fell, and a couple of people fell down on top of me.”

Then, Riederer said, the bus moved forward.

“It stopped with the tire on my leg,” she said. “It was on top of me for what seemed like forever.”

The bus eventually moved off her foot and an ambulance took her to the hospital, where she is being treated for her injuries.

Riederer said doctors classified her injury as a crush injury to the left leg and foot, with her ankle being the only broken bone. She said she has lost one of four muscle groups in her leg.

Riederer said she has had four surgeries since the incident, intended to help remove dead tissue and determine how to fix the leg.

David D. Diaz ’05, who said he witnessed the incident, noted that bystanders intervened to get the charter bus to move.

“The bus was stopped on her ankle, and everyone started screaming. A couple of people told the driver to move, but it took him a while,” Diaz said. “The bus was probably on her leg for five to 10 seconds.”

Riederer, for her part, said she did not know the name of the bus company, and was unsure whether she will take legal action against the bus company.

Friends of Riederer sent an e-mail to House e-mail lists last Wednesday asking witnesses to contact them and help her document the incident.

Diaz said he was unable to pinpoint one cause of the incident.

‘“I don’t know if anyone was at fault, but there were a few things about the situation to look at. One was everyone crowding around the bus, and the other was the bus driver,” he said. “I would never stand right next to a bus, but if I were the bus driver, I would be looking to see people.”

An e-mail from the party coordinators the day of the event said that 5,240 people had registered on the guest list.

Anna S. Arismendez ’06, who also witnessed the incident, said that the anxious crowd probably caused Riederer to fall.

“Everyone was rushing to the shuttle, trying to get on first. It was cold, we were tired, everyone was trying to rush,” Arismendez said.

For now, Riederer—who remains at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center— said she does not know when she will return to Harvard.

But she said she feels “lucky [the injury] wasn’t worse than what it was.”

Riederer also said she is thankful for the unknown students who lifted her from the street and took care of her until the ambulance arrived.

“Whoever they were, I would like to say thanks to them,” she said.

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.