First-year student Rachel Stump was in critical condition Monday night at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center after a car struck her at about 2:15 a.m. Sunday.
The driver, an Ohio State student, was driving southbound through a green light on North High Street near Chittenden Avenue when the vehicle hit Stump, according to a Columbus Division of Police report. Stump was crossing the street without using the crosswalk, the report said.
“I was with two of my friends and I saw her get hit,” said Rachel Hudson, a mechanical engineering student who was one of five witnesses that gave statements to the police. “I think it’s because her name was Rachel and I heard her friend say, ‘Rachel No.'”
The driver’s blood-alcohol content was .19, which is more than double the legal limit, when the driver hit Stump. The driver did not respond to The Lantern‘s request for comment. Stump’s blood-alcohol-content was not tested at the scene.
The Lantern will not name the driver since drunk driving charges are still pending. Stump was given a citation for pedestrian in the roadway, according to the report.
“The driver was cited and it was forwarded to the grand jury for indictment,” said Columbus Police Sgt. Richard Weiner. “If she would take a turn for the worse, then additional charges could be filed at a later date.”
Hudson said Stump was unconscious but still breathing after the accident. She was then taken to the Medical Center where she was treated for “multiple facial fractures, lacerations and bleeding in the brain,” according to the police report.
Although Stump was in critical condition as of 11 p.m. Monday, Medical Center officials said Monday morning that she was in serious condition.
“She’s got a long road ahead of her,” Angie Terando, a Stump family friend, told The Lantern. “She’ll have months of rehab.”
According to Stump’s Twitter account, @Rachel_Stump, she had lived on campus for less than a week prior to the accident. She moved in on Thursday, when OSU’s Orientation Welcome Leaders, a group that helps students move into their dorms, moved to campus.
“We are saddened to hear of the accident involving a new member of our Buckeye family,” said university spokesman Jim Lynch in an email to the The Lantern Sunday.
Lynch said President E. Gordon Gee visited Stump Sunday in the hospital.
Spokesmen at the Medical Center confirmed that she was in the surgical intensive care unit Sunday night and that she was in critical condition.
Riley Isley, a first-year in biochemistry and longtime friend of Stump’s, visited Stump Sunday.
“When I originally heard the news, it sounded bad and we really didn’t think that she was going to make it, but now there’s a lot of hope,” Isley said. “We’ve been planning on coming to Ohio State together and we were just going to take on the city together, so it’s kind of weird now to be here without her.”
Stump was a member of the Troy High School honor roll during the first marking period of her senior year, according to the Troy Daily News. She was also a varsity football cheerleader.
Stump’s friends, acquaintances and even those who have never met her have taken to social media to spread their prayers and support.
Terando’s 13-year-old son Sean started a #PrayForRachel Facebook group that had about 5,000 likes at about midnight Monday.
The hashtag #PrayForRachel has swept through Twitter and Instagram, a picture sharing site.
“We have a big group of friends that’s going to keep praying and our entire hometown is praying,” Isley said. “It feels good to have such a big support system behind her.”
Ally Marotti and Sarah Pfledderer contributed to this article.