New Haven Independent

The accident took place around 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Fountain Street and Central Avenue. The Westville intersection was blocked off for more than an hour while police investigated the scene and medics transported all of the two vehicles’ occupants to the hospital.

Well, not all of them. Rodriguez emerged unscathed.

Rodriguez, who lives on Shelton Avenue, was riding in the passenger seat, he said, as his wife went down Central through a green light at Fountain.

The force of the accident was enough to twist the front end of the Toyota into pieces and send the Chevy van onto the sidewalk and up to the entrance to the offices of the Pellegrino and Pellegrino law firm.

There was a lot of concern at first because one of the passengers in the Rodriguez vehicle was a baby. But he was secure in his car seat. According to both Rodriguez and West Battalion Chief Jim Stacy of the fire department, all of those who went to the hospital appeared to have minor injuries at most.

Police and city officials have recently vowed to start taking dangerous driving more seriously. It was unclear whether the police had made an arrest or issued a ticket in this incident. The officer on the scene referred questions Sunday to a supervisor; the captain in charge of patrol said he was too busy to provide information. He contacted mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga, who told the Independent Monday that she had no information on the incident or on whether an arrest was made. She said that in general the city is not equipped to provide same-day information about “minor” incidents that occur on weekends, but that if a report was written she might have details later Monday.

Update: Police spokesman Officer Joe Avery emailed this update late Monday afternoon: “The Officer was unable to determine fault for the accident due to conflicting stories of the operators, but the driver of the van was given a misdemeanor summons for operating without insurance and has a court date for 9/25/08.”