Alvaro Nunez had a story ready for Officer Katherine Bisson after his tan Toyota Corolla plowed into a silver Prius. Unfortunately for him, four other people had been standing at the corner watching.
The crash occurred at the intersection of Church and Wall streets by the state courthouse at around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday. It banged up both cars with serious front-end damage. The drivers themselves did not appear to have sustained significant injuries.
Nunez, a 27-year-old New Haven man who said he services boats for a living, was driving north on Church. The driver of the Prius (who declined to be interviewed) was traveling eastbound on Wall.
Two men standing on the corner at the time — Allen Smith and Joe Comfort —told the Independent they watched Nunez drive straight through a very red light and slam into the Prius, whose driver was passing through a green light.
“It [the crash] in fact knocked the glass out of his side window,” Smith noted. “He wasn’t speeding. But he was going fast enough.”
Two other bystanders told the police officer on the scene, Katherine Bisson, the same story.
Nunez began telling Bisson that he had the green light. She told him about the four independent witnesses who said otherwise.
“Independent witnesses don’t lie,” she said.
“They don’t know you. They don’t know her. OK?”
Then Nunez tried another tack.
“I followed the car that was next to me,” he said.
“Listen,” Bisson calmly replied. “You have to make sure it’s green. I don’t know if you didn’t check that out or what. But you know what happens when you run a red light? These things happen.”
She wrote him a ticket for running a red light.
“Put your flashers on. You’re going to need a tow,”
The City of New Haven will again support state legislation that would enable the use of Traffic Signal Enforcement Devises - Red Light Cameras. If you would like to help advocate for this policy change please let me know <a href="mailto:[email protected]">Rebecca Bombero - Legislative Director - City of New Haven</a>