Community struggles with child’s death
10-year-old dies of injuries from car crash
WESTPORT — What was supposed to be a fun family trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame ended in tragedy for a Westport family.
Perrin Delorey, a Greens Farm Elementary School fourth-grader, died Monday from injuries sustained in a two-vehicle collision just about 30 miles outside Cooperstown, N.Y., on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Westport Superintendent of Schools Colleen Palmer broke the news to the school community with an email to parents.
“As a school community, we express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Perrin,” Palmer wrote. “I send this note out with a heavy heart that we have lost such an amazing little boy who was loved by so many and who exuded life in all he did. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers.”
Around 3 p.m. Sunday, New York state troopers received reports of a headon collision on Route 20 in Sharon, N.Y. Police said it appeared the driver of one car, Perrin Delorey’s father, James C. Delorey, 49, was heading east in a 2016 Mini Cooper when he crossed the center line and crashed head-on into a vehicle traveling west
Both James Delorey and a front-seat passenger, Perrin Delorey’s mother, Angela H. Ryan, 47, were taken to the Albany Medical Center Hospital. James Delorey, senior vice president of research at public affairs firm Global Strategy Group, was released from the hospital the day of the crash. Ryan was released on Tuesday.
The driver of the other vehicle, 63-year-old Mohawk, N.Y., native Sherman W. Day, was reported in serious condition with head and neck injuries. A second occupant was uninjured.
Perrin Delorey, 10, was in the back seat of the Mini Cooper and suffered serious head and internal injuries, police said. He was transferred to Albany Medical Center Hospital and was on life support following the accident.
Police said the accident is under investigation by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Collision Reconstruction, and the uniform patrol, and retracted an initial statement that said Perrin was not wearing a seat belt.
According to the family friend, the Deloreys have made arrangements to donate their son’s organs.
The 10-year-old’s passing has left many in the community stricken with grief.
As a town, we’ll do everything and anything necessary to ease the pain of this terrible loss,” said First Selectman Jim Marpe. “But the reality is this will take a long time.”