New Haven police’s Crash Investigation Team was busy working into Saturday at the Church Street off-ramp from the Route 34 Connector, where a 59-year-old Branford man suffered severe head trauma after losing control of his motorcycle and crashing.
The crash occurred Friday just before 10:15 p.m. Here’s what happened, according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman:
After losing control, the man (whose identity is being withheld pending notification to family) “was ejected and struck the pavement. The operator suffered severe head trauma — leading investigators to believe he was not wearing a protective helmet. No other vehicles are thought to have been involved.”
He was reported in “critical and unstable condition” Saturday at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Meanwhile, the crash team is seeking to establish the cause of the crash, “focusing on excessive speed as a contributing factor.”
In a separate incident, a woman accompanied cops to the summit pavilion at West Rock Ridge at 6:36 p.m. Friday after she reported that her boyfriend had told her he was headed there to end his life. They found the man, who’s in his early 20s, there. “The patient had not made any attempt to kill himself abut acknowledged his despondent state,” Hartman reported. “He was transported by ambulance to the hospital where he was admitted for a psychiatric evaluation.”
