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Passenger injured in fatal crash undergoes surgery; driver remains in Bay State Medical

Michael Moriarty was on his way to Boston this morning where his son, Matthew, 20, is undergoing surgery for injuries sustained in Saturday morning's deadly crash on East Street in Great Barrington.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated at 10 a.m. today from a story that was published yesterday, April 5.

Great Barrington — A 20-year-old Great Barrington man who was hurt in Saturday’s early morning fatal one-car accident on East Street is undergoing surgery this morning at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, according to his father, Michael Moriarty. There were conflicting reports yesterday about Matthew A. Moriarty’s status after a Baystate Medical Center spokesman said Moriarty was upgraded to “fair condition…treated and released.”

The nature of Moriarty’s injuries have not been revealed; nor have those of Kyle Bailey, the 22-year-old driver of the car that police say crashed into a telephone pole, killing Garret J. Norton, 21, who rode shotgun. The Baystate spokesman said she had “no information on Kyle Bailey,” who was listed in critical condition after the crash, and transferred to Baystate. Great Barrington Police say he is still hospitalized, and is being held on $7000 bail while in custody there.

Police say that Moriarty was the second passenger in the car driven by Bailey, and that after the crash, they found Moriarty in the backseat with “serious injuries.” Norton died at Fairview Hospital after he was extricated from the car by the Great Barrington Fire Department.

Police say Bailey, of Glendale, was drunk when the car hit the pole just before 1 a.m. on April 4. He was arrested and charged with OUI Resulting in Motor Vehicle Homicide; Negligent Operation of a Motor Vehicle; Speeding; Failure to Stay Within Marked Lanes; Open Container of Alcohol in a Motor Vehicle; and OUI Causing Serious Injuries.

All three men were recent graduates of Monument Mountain Regional High School, where Norton and Moriarty, 2012 graduates, played football.

Matthew Moriarty
Matthew Moriarty

All three men were recent graduates of Monument Mountain Regional High School, where Norton and Moriarty, 2012 graduates, played football.

Grief-filled posts from friends have already poured into Norton’s Facebook page, painting the picture of a fun-loving, car- and truck-loving man who was always smiling. “You were one of the nicest, happiest kids in my class,” said one friend from Monument High, “and I’m so happy I got to be around you during your time here because you were a truly amazing person.

“…The world lost one of the best souls humanity had to offer,” said another.

Norton lived in Housatonic, where he worked at John’s Garage. He is a 2014 graduate of Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y., with a degree from the Automotive Technical Services academic program, according to his page on Merit.com, a networking site.

Bailey, it appears, is a budding photo journalist who attends Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire. According to the Keene State College of Journalism television station’s (KSC-TV) website, Bailey is a reporter, though it is unclear what year of school he is in. His profile says that he “is also the photo editor for the Equinox,” Keene State’s weekly student newspaper. Last semester, it says, Bailey “spent time interning as a sports photographer for Sports NH online,” and that “Kyle hopes to travel the country to continue to build his extreme sports photography portfolio and find himself a job doing what he loves.”  His photography website is www.kylebaileyphoto.com.

On Monday morning, commemorative ribbons and flowers were affixed to the telephone pole on East Street where Garrett Norton died in a deadly crash.
On Monday morning, commemorative ribbons and flowers were affixed to the telephone pole on East Street where Garrett Norton died in a deadly crash.

The accident isn’t Bailey’s first run-in with the law. A 2011 court log from the 8th Circuit Court in Keene shows that Bailey, then 18, was in “illegal possession of alcohol” on October 15 in Keene, for which he “pleaded guilty, fined $744, $372 to be paid and the remainder to be paid through 37 hours of community service, license revoked for six months.”

The Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis & Reconstruction Section and troopers from the Lee barracks, as well as the Southern Berkshire Volunteer Ambulance Squad, assisted at the scene in Great Barrington. The accident remains under investigation by the Great Barrington Police Department.

 

 

 

To contact Heather Bellow, write her at hbellow@theberkshireedge.com, or call 413-329-6871.

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