Help our sister Sarah heal financially

Being in the wrong place at the wrong time almost cost us our sister.

Our youngest sister, Sarah Banta, was the victim of a horrific car accident on 12/14/2021 that was the result of a police chase in Tucson Arizona. Sarah is physically okay, although she has extreme bruising all over her body and carries emotional scars. All the tests done in the hospital confirmed there were no internal injuries. The Police told her at the crime scene that if she had not been buckled into a car with airbags, she wouldn’t have survived the accident.

Sarah was taking her last carload of belongings to her new apartment on that sunny day before returning to campus to finish her finals. She was in the middle of an intersection when she was hit by another SUV going 80 mph that was being chased by the police. The driver had stolen the car and then assaulted a police officer before getting away in that vehicle. He then hit the police car and drove through a fence before he bounced off one car and smashed into Sarah’s car, causing both cars to spin out of control. He then fled and assaulted another police officer before being subdued. When the police looked in his car there was an MP5 gun on the passenger seat along with a host of drugs and drug paraphernalia in other parts of the stolen vehicle. Sarah was in shock and her blood pressure was rapidly dropping so she was transported to the hospital. Arizona laws have no recourse or compensation if the accident is the result of a police chase. In addition, they do not cover uninsured (or in this case driving a stolen vehicle without a license) motorists. When Sarah purchased this 2008 Rav4 back in the summer of 2020, she was 23. When the Geico Insurance agent advised her not to get collision insurance because her car was so old, Sarah didn’t think to question her. For a trusting 23 year old, why would she argue when someone is helping her save money? Her car was totaled along with many of her personal belongings in the car. She now has car payments she needs to make on a car that is a total loss and she needs to buy another car. Unfortunately as we all know, right now is the worst time to buy a used car. There are no deals on cars in Tucson, or anywhere for that matter.

Sarah also did not have medical insurance. She just started graduate school in September at University of Arizona in the Educational Specialist (Ed.S) degree program. This will prepare her to become a National Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) and give her the ability to be a practicing Psychologist to school children. She continued her job working as a clinician for a non profit Behavioral Health Clinic full time for the state as a counselor for children. As Fall progressed and her academic workload increased, she cut back her working hours to give her more time for her school work. When she adjusted her hours to part time, she lost her insurance. She planned to quit her job because it was too time consuming and was waiting until she finished her final exams to sign up for the state insurance AHCCCS. Unfortunately, she didn’t qualify for this insurance until she was totally unemployed. On December 14th she was in the middle of exams and planning to finish the year working part time. Sarah is now trying to work with the hospital to have them help her get on AHCCCS to help with her extensive medical bills.

This accident made the news in Tucson and if you go to this site you can hear how this tragedy unfolded. https://www.kold.com>2021/12/14

For anyone who knows Sarah, she has a heart of gold. Her life has been dedicated to helping less fortunate children. She spent a summer between her junior and senior year at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High in Thailand volunteering at a women's shelter. She paid for this trip entirely on her own. The summer after her first year at HWS, Sarah worked at a residential camp in N.H. working with severely emotionally impaired kids. Then before her senior year at Hobart William Smith College, she and another HWS friend of hers, convinced the school to help fund a service trip where the two of them lived in Kenya and worked with children in the local village. Sarah endured a summer of showering with a bucket, spotty electricity and when they ate chicken they had to buy it live, kill it, pluck it and cook it! Her senior year of college, Sarah was a student leader at the Boys and Girls Club of Geneva NY. This led to her becoming a mentor to a young girl. At Sarah’s graduation she had her and her mom at her graduation party. The mom said what a positive influence Sarah was and raved about all the wonderful things Sarah did for and with her daughter.

Sarah has spoken with the Pima County Victim’s Agency, a very helpful lawyer, a representative from Mothers Against Drunk Driving advocates and the bottom line is she will never be compensated for what happened. The only thing she will be able to do is read her victim's statement at his trial. The Judge will most likely require him to pay restitution to Sarah, but she has been told that she most likely will never see any money. Considering he has nine felony charges against him, she has been told that the likelihood of ever receiving any money is slim to nil. She has been told that her only chance for receiving any financial help would be to set up a Go Fund Me page. We desperately want to help Sarah out as much as we can and decided setting up a Go Fund Me page might at least help ease her financial stress and purchase a safe used car similar to the one she lost. Sarah would never ask for help and is still trying to figure out how to financially do all this on her own.

Sarah is a giver and a helper. The President of Hobart spoke about Sarah and her dedication to helping as she was setting off to Tucson to do a year with Americorp (where you basically live in poverty and on food stamps) to help others. She still contributes to the school in Kenya and keeps in touch with the girl she mentored during college. Sarah is a world traveler whose view of people is extraordinary. As she said to our mom after the accident “I feel badly for him because it looks like he was having a bad day”.

All of her siblings thank you in advance for anything you can contribute and for passing Sarah’s story along to anyone else who could help her.