Stevens High senior among three killed in Cornish

By KATY SAVAGE
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CLAREMONT — A Stevens High School senior student was among three people killed Thursday afternoon in a head-on collision on Route 12A in Cornish, New Hampshire.

Zachary Richards, 18, of Claremont was set to graduate from high school in June. He was a member of the Claremont Cool Cats, a Special Olympics program. Richards loved to swim and he wanted to be a mechanic, according to his obituary.

Daniel Churchill, 54, of Claremont and Patricia Churchill, 79, of Hartford, Vermont were also killed around 1:50 p.m. Thursday after the Ford Taurus they were in collided with a Loomis truck driven by Robert Santos. 

Santos was driving the truck with a passenger, police said. Neither Santos or the passenger were injured, according to police. 

Preliminary investigation from the New Hampshire State Police revealed that the Ford crossed the center line and that the truck was unable to avoid the collision.  

Stevens High School Principal Patricia Barry said on Sunday that Richards was involved in theater and that he was “one of our most zealous participants in Spirit Week and pep rallies.”

“Zach was a funny, loving and precocious young man, who was really excited about the prospect of graduation and walking with his classmates. He always had a smile on his face and many of us will remember him by his big grin, his high energy and quirky and fun-loving personality,” Barry said.

Richards had been to the school the day he died to pay his dues for graduation. Barry said Richards had already completed all his credits he needed to graduate.

“Our final interaction with him was typical — laughing and joking and full of optimism,” Barry said.

Richards is survived by his mother, Corine Richards, his father, Timothy, two half-brothers, Trevor Sherwood and Timothy Sherwood Jr.; grandmother, Rosemary Richards; grandfather, James Richards and many aunts, uncles and cousins.

A funeral service is scheduled at Stringer Funeral Home May 7 at 2 p.m. Visiting hours are scheduled an hour before the service. A burial will follow at St. Mary Cemetery.