Kennedy May Never Have Seen Tree Before Crash

A large, 3-inch crack on the top of Michael L. Kennedy’s skull indicates he was looking down while skiing and may never have seen the tree he hit, according to an autopsy report released Sunday.

Kennedy, 39, apparently looked over his right shoulder and successfully caught a black-and-yellow Nerf ball he had been tossing with friends and relatives as they skied down Aspen Mountain on New Year’s Eve.

But in a flash, his right ski rammed into a tree and Kennedy lowered his head, hitting the tree head-first, according to Pitkin County investigator David Blaine.

He died within seconds or minutes, the authorities said.

Kennedy, a son of Ethel Kennedy and the late Robert F. Kennedy, was buried Saturday in Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline after a private Mass in Centerville, on Cape Cod, attended by hundreds of friends and family members.

In addition to the straight crack down the center of his skull, Kennedy suffered several contusions to his brain. Deputy coroner Tom Walsh concluded that those injuries, along with a severed spinal cord, caused Kennedy’s death.