FedEx driver is charged, 27 children unhurt in collision

Salem Editor — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:59:00 GMT

The driver of a FedEx truck that collided with a school bus carrying 27 middle school students has been charged with failing to keep on the right side of the road.

None of the Windham Middle School students was injured when the collision occurred on Cristy Road around 2:40 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 2. But the crash sent both drivers to the hospital for injuries.

Police Capt. Patrick Yatesevich said the FedEx driver, Dominic Mancino, was charged with failure to keep right.

The charge is a violation and carries a fine of $75. Mancino is not required to appear in court but must answer a summons through the New Hampshire Department of Motor Vehicles within 30 days, according to Yatsevich. Mancino was issued the summons on Jan. 7 by officer Bryan Smith.

Mancino, of 15 Meadow Drive, Goffstown, suffered lower leg injuries. He was semi-concious when rescue workers arrived but became more alert as he was treated, said Fire Chief Thomas McPherson.

The bus driver, Thomas Murray, of 5 Rainstree, Londonderry, suffered lacerations and abrasions to his left hand and face. He was treated at Parkland Medical Center in Derry.

The severity of the damage from the accident was something one would expect to see on an accident occurring on a highway or major road, McPherson said.

“To see it on a secondary street was pretty amazing,” McPherson said. “Obviously, it could have been worse.”

McPherson credited the students with staying calm on the bus after the accident. Another bus brought them back to school where they were released to family members.

Windham police were assisted in their investigation of the collision by the New Hampshire Highway Patrol.

Man convicted after luring teen

Salem Editor — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:04:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

A Florida man faces at least 10 years behind bars after being convicted of luring a 15-year-old girl from her Windham home.

Following a three-day trial, Daniel M. Lenz, 26, of Jacksonville, Fla., was convicted in U.S. District Court in Concord. He had been charged with causing the transportation of a minor in interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual misconduct.

In March, Windham police were notified that the girl had run away from home. Investigators discovered that she was on her way to Florida to meet Lenz.

Authorities met up with her in South Carolina. They claimed that another Florida man, Jason Dowling, 23, had been sent by Lenz to pick up the girl in New Hampshire and bring her to Lenz’s home in Jacksonville.

Windham police and the FBI determined that the girl had been communicating with Lenz through World of Warcraft, an online interactive video game, before she ran away.

The case against Lenz was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.

“When Congress passed the Protect Act, it emphasized the importance of prosecuting those individuals who use the Internet to prey on minors by increasing the punishment for such crimes,” Thomas Colantuono, U.S. Attorney for New Hampshire, said in a statement. “This office will continue to dedicate its resources to prosecuting those individuals who travel the interstate with the purpose of engaging in sex with minors. Prosecuting such individuals will remove them and the danger they pose and will provide a significant deterrent to those who may consider taking advantage of our children.”

Colantuono praised the work of the Windham police, the FBI, the Cyber-Crime Unit of the Florida Attorney General’s Office and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department.

Lenz will be sentenced on Dec. 18. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Helen Fitzgibbon.

Windham News : children

FedEx driver is charged, 27 children unhurt in collision

Man convicted after luring teen