After a Yale junior ran three women down with a rented U‑Haul, his friends said the truck had been acting funny. A police investigation found otherwise.
The accident happened on Nov. 19, 2011, in a parking lot at the Yale Bowl during the tailgating lead-up to the annual Yale-Harvard football game.
One woman died after being struck by the U‑Haul, which held four beer kegs and 20 to 30 people in the back. The other two women were injured, one seriously.
Yale junior, Brendan Ross, was behind the wheel at the time of the accident. He was arraigned in Superior Court on Elm Street Monday. He faces charges of negligent homicide with a motor vehicle and reckless driving, both misdemeanors. He did not enter a plea. The case was continued to June 12.
Those charges resulted from an investigation by Officer Rose Dell. She outlined her findings in an arrest warrant application on file in the courthouse.
Defense attorney William Dow III claims that the U‑Haul malfunctioned. He said Ross intends to plead not guilty.
Cops found no evidence of any mechanical problems with the truck.
According to the affidavit, one of the four people in the front seat of the U‑Haul told Dow in an email that Ross had said before the crash that the truck was acting funny. “He said that the U‑Haul was difficult to steer and that the needed to press hard and early on the brakes to put the vehicle at a full stop.”
Another man who had been in the front seat said Ross shouted “I’ve got my foot on the brake. I’m not pressing the accelerator,” as the truck shot forward, according to the affidavit.
A friend of Ross, who had rented the U‑Haul, told Dow that “the engine was particularly loud, and the acceleration and brakes seemed slightly unresponsive. He considered returning the truck to U‑Haul for an exchange, but did not,” Dell wrote.
Dell contacted two U‑Haul customers who had rented the truck on the two days before the game. “Neither customer complained of any mechanical malfunctions of the truck,” Dell wrote.
The man who rented the truck two days before the game posted a review online saying that the truck was in good operating condition, Dell wrote. She spoke with the guy, who told her he had had no problems with the truck.
On Dec. 7, 2011, a mechanic with the police department inspected the U‑Haul and found no problems with the gas pedal, cable, throttle, or brakes.
One of the women who was run over with the Massachusetts woman who died told police “that she could hear the thumping of their bodies underneath the truck,” Dell wrote.
When police arrived, Ross was unable to turn off the truck, according to the affidavit. A Yale police sergeant had to reach inside, put the car in park, turn it off, and remove the keys.
Dell wrote that Ross said, in a shaky voice, “Oh my God! What did I do? It was an accident.”
He passed a field sobriety test.
Private Eye Arrested
In other news Monday, police arrested the private detective who helped overturn the 1995 murder convictions of two New Haveners, the Register reports.
Private investigator Gerald O’Donnell, who lives in Cheshire, is being charged with witness tampering and bribery in relation to the case of George Gould and Ronald Taylor.
His work was instrumental in exonerating the two men, who were convicted for the 1993 murder of a New Haven shopkeeper. The state Supreme Court reversed the decision in 2011. Gould was sent back to prison. Taylor remained free due to terminal cancer, which took his life on in October 2011.
"Ross had said before the crash that the truck was acting funny. "He said that the U-Haul was difficult to steer and that the needed to press hard and early on the brakes to put the vehicle at a full stop."" so we will take this suspect vehicle into a crowded area? Reads like a confession to negligent homicide to me.