The 22-year-old motorcycle passenger left in critical condition from Friday’s accident has passed away.
Halie Guelfi was on the back of Thomas Joseph Coady’s motorcycle when Coady, also 22, ran a red light. The bike struck the side of a pick-up truck, and the two were transported to UF Health Shands Hospital.Coady was pronounced dead hours later while Guelfi remained in critical condition with head and internal injuries.
UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes confirmed that Guelfi passed away at some point Sunday night or Monday morning, but she is unsure of the exact time.
Sikes said Guelfi was a biology senior on the pre-medicine track. She moved to Naples in 2004, where she attended Naples High School until 2011, according to her biography on the Gator Pre-Medical Guide website.
While in high school, Guelfi wrote for the school newspaper, serving as its editor-in-chief her senior year. She described her interests as loving animals, surfing, traveling and sushi, her bio reads.
Igal Rojzman, a UF political science senior, worked with Guelfi at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Ambassadors program. The 21-year-old described Guelfi as a “very sweet and nice girl.”
Prajwal Dara, 21, said Guelfi was a kind and genuine person. The biology senior said he met Guelfi a few weeks ago when the two were paired up for a class project.
“During that time, she seemed like such a driven person,” he said.
Guelfi lost her mother in high school. She had cancer, and Guelfi told Dara that her mother died from a drug she was given during treatment. Before the motorcycle accident, Dara said Guelfi was in the process of filing a lawsuit against the drug company.
“She was such a responsible and collected person,” Dara said. “I really admired her for that. I feel like she went into medicine because she truly wanted to save lives and help people.”
Guelfi has a younger brother, Joseph, who is a freshman at Santa Fe College, he said.
“She was always smiling,” he said.
Guelfi told Dara that she wanted to travel through South America alone after graduation.
“Halie wasn’t like other pre-med students,” Dara said. “You could tell that she had way more going on than we did, but she never showed it. I feel like she really could have saved lives and helped people and impact the world. She had a lot of drive.”
Dara also knew Coady, who he said was friendly and energetic. He remembers a time he ran into Coady at UF Health Shands Hospital and said Coady went out of his way to say hello.
Coady was also a biology senior on the pre-medicine track, Sikes said.
On a Facebook post, Maddie Upthegrove, a friend of Coady’s, wrote “Last night the world lost a very funny, intelligent, and kind man. Rest in peace Tom.”
[Editor’s note: Check back Wednesday for interview with Coady’s mother, UF professor Maria Coady.]
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 12/7/2014]
