Remembering Ryan Meegan and Alana Ferrante

Three weeks ago on Friday, 18-year-old sophomore Hannah Schmidt went home in the afternoon to get her car.

Her parents live in Hebron, twenty minutes south of UConn, and two friends decided to join her for the ride – fellow Huskies Ryan Meegan and Alana Ferrante.

“We went back to my house just to pick up my car,” she told The Tab. “Leaving my house was the last thing I remember.”

Near the Hebron town line, where Route 66 intersects with West Street, Hannah’s Toyota Camry collided with a tractor trailer. The trailer hit the right side of her car as she entered the intersection, and both vehicles slammed into a utility pole.

Ryan and Alana died at the scene.

Hannah survived, and was transported first to Windham hospital, and later by helicopter to Hartford Hospital, while the driver of the trailer escaped with minor injuries.

Ever since the tragic accident, friends of Ryan and Alana have expressed moving tributes through social media. But this week Hannah, who is recovering from a severe concussion and an open skull fracture, spoke publicly for the first time, and she wanted to use the opportunity to pay tribute to her friends.

Ryan, center, Hannah, right, and a friend.

She doesn’t remember much about the accident itself, but her memories of Ryan and Alana are very fond.

“He was pretty sassy but he was super funny,” she says of Ryan. “He’d always have a punchline or a witty comment.”

Ryan was a sophomore at UConn studying to be a History teacher.

He recently became an FYE Mentor, which he saw as a stepping stone in his career. He played rugby at UConn, and Hannah remembers his excitement at making the soccer team – something he didn’t expect.

Hannah’s favorite memory of Ryan is from when she drove two hours to his house in Ridgefield along with another friend for his birthday. He took them out to his favorite barbecue restaurant and was really happy they were there because he didn’t get to see a lot of his UConn friends when he was at home.

“He was super excited that we came down because he missed everyone from school so much,” she says.

Ryan at Oozeball

Alana had gone to Central Connecticut State University her freshman year but Hannah convinced her to transfer to UConn for her sophomore year.

Hannah said: “She didn’t love Central and she knew UConn was a better school and she was really excited because she has a lot of friends here.”

She was studying Pre-Kinesiology but she was becoming more involved with environmental classes and clubs so she planned on switching to become an Allied Health major.

She was also involved in club volleyball at Central and joined the club frisbee team at UConn.

“Meeting anyone would just excite her and she loved — not even going out, but just being outside and getting a chance to meet new people and try new things.

She was always looking for an adventure, like going hiking or camping out,” says Hannah. “She was ready to join a hundred clubs and do everything that she could possibly manage.”

She remembers the first time they hung out. They were both on the same club volleyball team their senior year of high school and one weekend Hannah, Alana, and two other teammates went down to a beach and played doubles volleyball for hours.

“That was the first night I hung out with Alana but it was so much fun because we were on the beach from three in the afternoon and ended up playing the whole night,” says Hannah. “She had so much energy and happiness.”

Both Alana and Ryan loved attending UConn. Their favorite place to be was on campus with all of their friends.