Driver Dies In Chapel St. Crash

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by Melissa Bailey | Jan 27, 2012 2:14 pm

(1) Comment | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Legal Writes

Melissa Bailey Photo A man in his early 60s lost control of a Buick LeSabre as he drove up Chapel Street Friday afternoon, sideswiping five parked cars before plowing into a Jeep.

The driver was pronounced dead Friday afternoon, according to police spokesman Officer Dave Hartman.

The man appears to have had a medical emergency while driving. EMTs on the scene attempted to revive him, but were unsuccessful. He was taken to the Hospital of St. Raphael, just a block from the scene of the collision.

That’s according to Lt. Ray Hassett, who arrived on the scene after a call came into police at 12:54 p.m.

He said police showed up to find a light blue LeSabre crashed into a tan Jeep Grand Cherokee on Chapel between Sherman and Hotchkiss.

A man was sitting behind the wheel of the Buick, whose airbag had deployed, Hassett said. EMTs pulled him onto the sidewalk and “worked on him” without success, he said.

Police believe the man had some kind of medical emergency, such as a heart attack or seizure, as he was driving west on Chapel Street past the entrance to St. Ray’s.

“By the main entrance, he starts hitting vehicles, glancing off them,” Hassett said. The driver continued to sideswipe parked cars—five of them—for two blocks, until “he crashed into a car that didn’t move.”

At shortly after 2 p.m., at least 10 police cruisers were on the scene, blocking traffic at nearby streets.

A neighbor walked by around 2 p.m with her young son in tow. She said her gray Saab was among the cars that were swiped. She said she was upstairs in a nearby apartment building when she heard, “Bang! Boom!” and a car horn going off. She said she saw the man slumped over the steering wheel.

“The cops came real quick.”

She saw the EMTs on the sidewalk. “They were working on him hard.”

Then the EMTs stopped and took him to the hospital, which she said she interpreted as a sign that he wasn’t going to make it.

Her Saab was only scraped. “I’m lucky, but this lady here, her car is real messed up,” she said, referring to the Jeep.

She said she heard the man died of a heart attack.

“I feel bad,” she said, “because he had to have a family.”

In other police news, according to Officer Harman:

Deliverer Mugged

A delivery man reported being robbed on the job on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Fair Haven.

The victim, who lives in New York City, met Officer Thomas Herbert at 19 Monroe St., the scene of the alleged crime. He told Herbert that he was working that night for Wok Number One, a Chinese restaurant on Lombard Street. When he showed up at a house on Monroe Street to make a delivery, “no one was there waiting,” so he dialed the customer’s phone number.

At that point, a man emerged from the driveway, wielded a gun and demanded money. The victim was robbed of money, a GPS device, and the food. Herbert summoned a police canine to help track the robber’s scent, “but, perhaps due to the inclement weather, the track was lost,” Hartman said.

Sam’s Mart Robbery

A few hours later, at 11:37 p.m., cops responded to the report of another robbery.

“Officer Frank Canace rushed to the Sam’s Mart convenience store at 285 Whalley Ave.,” where a clerk had reportedly been robbed. The clerk told Canace he was “minding the store when he was confronted by a masked man armed with a black pistol.” At gunpoint, the clerk handed over the contents of the cash register. The robber, clad in a black, waist-length raincoat, fled into the night.

Detectives are investigating the robbery. Anyone with information can call detectives at 203-946-6304.

Phone Trouble

The police department continues to have some problems with its phones. According to Hartman: “AT&T is continuing to have issues facilitating the transition from their previous system to the new Valley Communications System.” Some numbers and extensions are inaccessible, but “the main reporting number, 203-946-6316 and 911 are up and unaffected.”

For block-by-block year-to-date crime info, and daily crime maps, check the Independent’s crime log.

Comment

posted by: junebugjune on January 30, 2012 2:52pm

Something very similar to this happened a few months ago. I was driving up Whalley towards Ella Grasso when a woman started swerving into my lane. She nearly hit me and a bunch of other people. When I got a look at her face she was totally bent to the side and her eyes were rolled back in her head like she was having a seizure. A man in a truck stopped his car in front of her and we both called the police. By the time I parked my car at the Walgreens and ran over to help out, she had fled the scene in her car. Scary stuff.
So sorry to hear this poor man lost his life this way.

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