He was just making a lane change, but he inadvertently changed his life instead. Men's basketball and baseball player Rocco Toppi '08 suffered a near fatal car accident on Wednesday on Route 128.The six-foot-five native of Portland, Maine was on his way from home back to school driving teammate Bryan Lambert's '05 car when he was cut off by a car in the middle of a lane change. Toppi only remembers hitting the guardrail, and then waking up in an ambulance.

"People said he's lucky to be alive," teammate Florian Rexhepi '08 said.

Six people were injured in the crash, but none worse than Toppi. He was rushed to the Leahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass., where doctors diagnosed him with multiple serious injuries.

Toppi's father, Rocco III, said his son suffered multiple fractures in his lower back, a fracture in his neck, a fractured shoulder, a broken rib, a partially collapsed lung and multiple cuts on his face.

Amazingly, Toppi has not needed surgery for any of his injuries, but was kept immobilized in the Leahey Clinic before being released and taken home by his parents on Sunday.

Teammates visited Toppi in the hospital on several occasions, much to the gratitude of Rocco III.

"I think it helped him a lot to have all the players come and talk to him," Rocco III said.

"We were crying, we felt really horrible," teammate Scott Green '05 said. "We're such good friends and we love each other a lot, it was hard for us just to be in the room with him."

Toppi continues to rest at home, and while there is no official estimate for his recovery time, he will continue to wear a neck brace for two months.

"I think he's getting back to normal because he's grouchy," Rocco III joked. "He's got a neck brace but he's walking.

Rocco III is confident that his son is strong enough to bounce back from the accident.

"He was cracking some pretty good jokes in the emergency room," Rocco III said. "He's got the hard Toppi head. He's doing really good for as much [that happened]."

"He's got some pretty serious injures, but he's going to be fine," Coach Brian Meehan said. "He'll have plenty of time to work on his conditioning, and we fully expect him back next year."

-Senior Writer Jonathan Zimmerman contributed to this article.