At the time, Jennifer Lynn Coutermash’s death earned a three-sentence blotter item: a woman, not wearing a seat belt, loses control of her car while driving southbound on I‑91. She crashes, dies. Six months later, her estate is charging that a city cop was following her on the highway at high speed that night and caused the crash.
That allegation appears in a notice filed with the city Wednesday afternoon. The legal filing — alerting the city about an upcoming lawsuit — was submitted on behalf of Coutermash’s estate.
Coutermash (pictured), a New Haven police dispatcher and mother of three, died in the crash by Exit 6 of Interstate 91 on Friday, Oct. 29, at around 7 p.m.
Her death, announced in a state police release, attracted little notice at the time. It merited one paragraph in an Associated Press roundup of statewide fatal accidents: “State police say that at about 7 p.m. Friday, Jennifer Coutermash of North Haven lost control of her vehicle, which hit a jersey barrier on Interstate 91 in New Haven before rolling over. The 29-year-old Coutermash, a New Haven police dispatcher, was ejected from the vehicle and state police say she died at the scene.” (Subsequent obituaries put her age at 30.)
In a “notice of claim pursuant to CT General Statute Section 7 – 465” sent Wednesday to Police Chief Limon and filed with the city clerk, William J. Coutermash offered a different version of the crash. Coutermash, Jennifer’s ex-husband, is the administrator of her estate; he wrote that the estate intends to sue the city, Mayor John DeStefano, the police department, Chief Limon, and a veteran cop based on a wrongful death claim.
As Jennifer Coutermash drove southbound on I‑91 that fateful night, the letter charges, the police officer “was chasing, intimidating, following and/or harassing [her].” The letter claims that the officer was speeding and “repeatedly texting and calling [Coutermash] while she was attempting to operate her motor vehicle while he was chasing, intimidating, harassing and/or following her.”
“A combination of the driving maneuvers engaged in by” the officer, plus “other significant distractions he created by virtue of his actions, the decedent was caused to lose control of her vehicle causing her vehicle to strike the jersey barrier resulting in her being ejected from the vehicle and the vehicle rolling over her whereby she sustained serious personal injuries which resulted in her death,” the letter charges. It contends that the officer drove at an “unreasonable” speed, followed “too closely,” “failed to grant the right of way” or to “drive in an established lane”; and “crowded, pushed and/or bumped the decedent’s vehicle causing the decedent to lose control of her vehicle ultimately resulting in her death.”
The letter cites an “ongoing investigation” into the accident. City police said the state police are handling the investigation. State police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance said Thursday that he did not immediately recall the case, but that he would look into it.
The officer, a respected longtime member of the force, could not be reached for comment.
Chief Limon, who hadn’t yet seen the notice of intent to sue Thursday morning, referred questions to the city’s legal department.
“The corporation counsel is reviewing the matter” and will “respond accordingly at the appropriate time,” said mayoral spokesman Adam Joseph.
A family member reached for comment said questions should be directed to the estate’s lawyer, Michael Milazzo of New Haven. Milazzo said Thursday that he represents the ex-husband on the estate but not in this suit.
Ronald Hobson, who represents police dispatchers as president of AFSCME Local 884, said that the accident upset him.
A month or two before Coutermash’s passing, Hobson said, he had gone to visit her. Coutermash had been missing a lot of work, he said.
“She was so fragile. She was a little woman,” Hobson said. “She had a bubbly personality, a very nice girl.”
Coutermash told him “everything was under control,” Hobson said. “She said she would be OK.”
“Even now I get emotional,” Hobson said. “That woman should not have died like that.”
A police dispatcher Thursday said Coutermash was well-liked by her colleagues. “We started [on the job] together,” the dispatcher said Thursday. “She was sweet. She was easy to get along with. She was always smiling; I don’t think there is a picture of her without a smile.”
An online guest book for Coutermash sponsored by West Haven Funeral Home attracted 43 testimonials.
Here’s what Coutermash’s 8‑year-old daughter wrote: “mommy i love u soooo much this is … still the age of 8 i love you soooooo much mommmy i hope you still remember me i still remember u and i remember u coming into my room asking me if i was going to your house and while i was getting my clothes you would fall alsleep on my bed and that is how you looked at your weck you looked like sleeping beauty still as beautiful i love u mommy … ”
Whoah. Do we need that last paragraph in this story? Really, it is completely unrelated to the story and clearly out of place here. This is a serious subject -- please don't cheapen your coverage of it by including a quote like that from someone's young child. There's no need.