Police have charged a 21-year-old Hamden man with negligent homicide for erratic driving that ended up killing a 54-year-old bicyclist.
The crash took place on Dixwell Avenue in Hamden on Wednesday around 1:15 a.m.
Here’s what happened, according to Hamden police spokesperson Capt. Ronald Smith:
The driver was traveling southbound on Dixwell when he crossed the “double-yellow center lines, both northbound lanes, and entered the shoulder along the east curb” of Dixwell Avenue.
Meanwhile 54-year-old David Toles of New Haven was riding his bicycle on the southbound shoulder. The front of the driver’s car struck Toles’s bicycle, ejecting Toles.
After crashing into Toles, the driver kept going, snapping two utility poles, until his car landed on its roof.
Paramedics who subsequently arrived declared Toles dead at the scene.
Police charged the driver with negligent homicide with a motor vehicle, driving under the influence, and failure to drive in the proper lane.
My condolences to the loved ones of yet another victim of a driver under the influence.