HMS teacher Bill Mingace (left) sits with his cousin, Vinny Collotta, in this photo taken prior to the motorcycle crash. PHOTO/COURTESY VINNY COLLOTTA
A popular Hopkinton Middle School civics teacher and baseball coach injured in an Oct. 6 motorcycle crash was “in good spirits” upon being moved to an area rehabilitation center Wednesday, according to the victim’s cousin.
In a phone interview with the Independent on Wednesday, Vinny Collotta shared that teacher Bill Mingace suffered “a lot of broken bones” when his motorcycle was struck by a truck in Grafton.
“I’m his cousin, but I always call myself his brother,” he said. “The two of us are very close. We both love riding motorcycles, and we go out riding together almost every weekend.”
Collotta said Mingace was on his way to visit him at his home in Grafton after leaving work at HMS when the crash occurred. The pair had planned to ride their motorcycles to dinner together that evening.
“We were going to go down the road from my place to get some chicken wings,” Collotta explained. “When he didn’t come, I thought he bagged out on me.
“Then he called me from the ambulance around 5 to tell me he was in an accident,” he continued. “I was shocked. I was able to speak to a paramedic, who told me he had some broken bones. Luckily, I was told there was no serious head injury.”
Collotta said he was told that an off-duty Massachusetts State Police officer assisted Mingace at the scene.
“They told me he had lost a lot of blood, so the off-duty officer put a tourniquet on Billy’s leg,” he said.
Collotta described what his cousin told him about the accident.
“He said a truck came out of the blue at him,” he shared. “He made a split-second decision to try to get out of the way as the truck backed out into him. He said there was nothing he could do.”
Collotta said he was told by the paramedic that the truck’s driver remained at the scene of the accident.
According to the Grafton Police Department’s log from Oct. 6, the accident was reported “in the vicinity of Providence Road and Milford Road” at 4:18 p.m. Mingace was transported to a local hospital for treatment at that time.
Mingace was transferred to “an area rehab facility” Wednesday afternoon to continue his convalescence, Collotta shared. He declined to name the facility or the hospital out of respect for his cousin’s privacy.
“It’s going to be a long road to recovery for him,” he said. “When he gets out of rehab, he will need some care.”
Collotta started a GoFundMe fundraising campaign on Oct. 10 to help his cousin with “medical expenses and daily needs.” As of 8:30 a.m. Friday, $7,857 of the $15,000 goal had been raised.
Collotta said neither he nor Mingace know when he would be well enough to return to work.
Said Collotta: “It really means a lot to him that Hopkinton is pulling for him.”
‘Nothing the motorcycle could do’
In an interview with the Hopkinton Independent on Thursday, Sgt. Michael Mazzola of the Grafton Police Department corroborated Collotta’s account of the accident and shared additional details. While he was not on duty at the time of the incident, he said he reviewed the file and spoke with colleagues about it.
“The motorcycle was traveling in the northbound lane on Providence Road at Milford Road, near the Grafton/Northbridge town line,” he explained. “The motorcycle crashed into the back of a truck that was pulling out onto Providence Road near Milford Road.
“It was a pretty straightforward, bad accident,” continued Mazzola. “Obviously, because the person was on a motorcycle and given that it was late afternoon, we assume he was pretty much going at full speed, around 40 mph.
“The truck just pulled right out into the path of the motorcycle,” he said. “There was really nothing the motorcycle could do.”
A Grafton Police Department recall team responded to the emergency, noted Mazzola. In addition, the Southeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (SEMLEC) was called in to investigate the incident, as well as the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office.
“The motorcycle did nothing wrong,” stressed Mazzola. “He wouldn’t have been at fault anyway, because the motorcycle has the right of way in that situation. Sometimes people don’t realize that.”
Mazzola described the truck as acting “like a brick wall” to the motorcycle.
He added: “The saving grace is that the motorcycle flipped into the bed of the truck.”
When questioned about the role of the off-duty MSP officer, Mazzola said, “I did hear about the officer applying the tourniquet. My understanding was that the victim’s femur was injured.”
While he stressed that the accident remained under investigation, he noted that “there was no alcohol involved” and that “the person who was driving the truck was charged.” He did not indicate the scope of the charges.
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