Questions surround Darien fatal

DARIEN, N.Y. (WIVB) - Twenty-year-old Casey Parnell, of Mumford, died at ECMC early Sunday morning, after he was struck by a minivan on Sumner Road in Darien the night before.

It happened around 9:05 p.m. near the entrance to the Cherry Hill Campgrounds, which is directly across Sumner Road from Darien Lake.

Investigators have learned Parnell was standing on the shoulder just before the accident.

"The individual, for reasons unknown at this point in the investigation, stepped or moved into the path of an eastbound minivan and was struck," said Deputy Gordon Dibble of the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

These are the mysteries the Genesee County Sheriff's Office is now trying to unravel--why Parnell was in that spot and what made him run into the road?

One possibility investigators are considering is that Parnell may've been in the area for the Rascal Flatts concert at Darien Lake.

The accident, however, happened before the concert let out.
"I can't say for sure that he's a concertgoer," Dibble said. "I'm not even sure what he was doing at the time."

Thrity-nine-year-old Amanda Cline, of Homer, was driving the minivan. So far, she is not being charged, but the case is still under investigation.

"At first glance, from what we know at this time, it does not appear to be the minivan driver's fault," Dibble explained.

Parnell studied electrical construction and maintenance at Alfred State College. According to a 2010 newsletter from the Electrical Association of Rochester, he dreamed of one day starting his own commercial electrical company.

He had been an honor roll student, and a member of the varsity football and track teams at Caledonia-Mumford High School.