Troopers now say boy was wearing seat belt before fatal accident

When a head-on collision in Schoharie County fatally injured a Connecticut boy on Sunday, State Police issued a news release that said the 10-year-old hadn't been wearing a seatbelt.

The result was a typical ritual of the digital age: Already coping with the unimaginable loss of their son, Perrin Delorey's parents faced a barrage of criticism as strangers took to social media to castigate their alleged carelessness.

"Lock them up," one commenter on the Times Union's Facebook page wrote.

"If anything good can come of this, it will remind people that being lax about wearing seatbelts/buckling their children is just not okay!" another wrote Tuesday on the website of the family's hometown newspaper, the Westport News.

The family insisted the boy had been wearing his seat belt. Documents shared with the Times Union on Tuesday evening showed Perrin had been belted in before his father, James C. Delorey, removed it to try to revive him after the crash on Route 20 in Sharon.

Thursday afternoon, the State Police reversed its initial determination of investigators, saying in a new statement that the boy's wounds were "consistent with him being properly restrained with a seat belt in the rear seat of the vehicle at the time of the collision."

State Police spokesman Beau Duffy said the troopers explained their decision to the boy's family.

"It's fair to say we do regret any angst that it caused the family during this time," Duffy said Thursday afternoon.

The statement was the second change troopers had made in response to the case: In an updated release posted Wednesday, State Police quietly removed references to whether Perrin had been wearing a seat belt after the family pleaded for the change, Duffy said.

"We certainly don't want to be wrong. We'd be regretful if we were," Duffy said hours before the reversal. "But we'll make a formal determination and report that out."

The boy's parents, 49-year-old James C. Delorey and 47-year-old Angela H. Ryan, were injured in the crash, as was the other driver.

Perrin, who had been in the back seat, was rushed with head and internal injuries to Albany Medical Center Hospital, where he later died. The family decided to donate the boy's organs, a family friend said Tuesday.

His mother, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, was taken to Albany Med with spinal and rib injuries. His father, the driver, was also taken to the hospital with an unknown injury. Both parents were listed in stable condition, troopers said Tuesday.

Troopers said that their initial investigation showed that James Delorey was driving east in a 2016 Mini Cooper when he crossed the center line and hit a 2018 Chevrolet pick-up truck headed west. Police said they are unsure why Delorey left his lane.

The Times Union was not able to reach the family on Thursday.

The pick-up truck driver, 63-year-old Sherman W. Day of Mohawk, was flown to Albany Med with head and neck injuries after being pulled from his vehicle by emergency crews.

The initial release said that Day had not been wearing a seatbelt — an assessment that remained unchanged as of Thursday.