Freshman injured in sledding accident

This past Thursday night, the first big snowstorm of season prompted close to 300 Tufts students to carry on the tradition of sledding down the hill on the President's Lawn, using everything from dining hall trays to a shopping cart as sleds.

But the festivities were short-lived for the three students who rode down in the shopping cart. One of the passengers, freshman Aija Shaah, had to take a trip to the hospital after the cart hit a bump and threw her into the air, knocking her unconscious for ten minutes.

"They were going down really, really fast," one student said. "A guy ran over and grabbed the cart from the back to slow it down, and at the same time, a bump in the ground stopped the cart, but they all flew out of it."

Shaah, who was sitting in the front, flew the highest and landed face first on the ground, using her hands to ease her fall. Immediately afterwards, the other two students landed on top of her.

The Tufts University Medical Service (TEMS) was called immediately after the incident. Upon arriving at the scene, Shaah said they turned her over and stabilized her, as she was bleeding heavily from the mouth. She was not severely injured, as many students who witnessed the accident had speculated.

TEMS took Shaah to the emergency room, washed and cleaned her up, and examined her mouth. She sustained bruised gums and a few scratches on her face. She did not need any stitches, and was released from the hospital that night. TEMS drove her back to her dormitory after they determined that she had only sustained various bumps and bruises and what she described as "a really, really sore mouth."

"Overall, Thursday night was really, really crazy," freshman Aman Chahal said. "People were basically sledding down the hill on anything they could find, from boxes to garbage cans to shopping carts, and someone was bound to get hurt. The girl is very lucky that she only has a few bruises and a sore mouth, because it could have been a lot worse."