Vowing to crack down on dangerous driving amid a rash of pedestrian crashes, police obtained an arrest warrant for a man accused of plowing into the walker of a woman inside a Westville pedestrian crosswalk.
Police charged the driver, who is 68 years old, with second-degree reckless endangerment for hurtling through a pedestrian crosswalk at Whalley Avenue and Blake Street, striking a walker being used by a woman seeking to cross the street, and propelling her to the sidewalk. The woman subsequently went to the hospital.
Police originally issued the driver a verbal warning after the Feb. 13, 2:19 p.m. crash.
Police Chief Otoniel Reyes last week ordered a review of the case after a video (above) of the crash was made public in this article.
“After I looked at that video, we did a full evaluation. There is no question the man was reckless,” Reyes said Monday.
The department obtained a warrant for the driver’s arrest on Friday.
Meanwhile, the pedestrian suffered “minor bumps and bruises,” Reyes said. Because her injuries were not more serious, the police could not charge the driver under the state’s vulnerable users law.
“I am outraged at the reckless driving that has caused loss of life” in New Haven, Mayor Justin Elicker said Monday. He noted that he first got involved in New Haven politics in part through “safe street” organizing to protect pedestrians. “Traffic safety is one of my highest priorities.” He said he has been in “consistent contact” with Chief Reyes about the issue.
Reyes said Monday that his officers have issued 1,100 more motor vehicle enforcement stops so far in 2020 than they did during the same period in 2019.
“We’re sending the message that we’re enforcing motor vehicle laws in New Haven,” he said.
Drivers have already killed four pedestrians in New Haven in 2020. (By contrast, the city has seen one murder.) Police have released only limited information about those fatal crashes while they remain under investigation.
On Sunday, a driver hit and killed a 68-year-old pedestrian named Govinda Kandel on Middletown Avenue. On Jan. 14, 50-year-old New Havener Arthur Bastek was struck and killed on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard. On Jan. 22, 55-year-old New Havener Kevin Anthony Cunningham was struck and killed on Whalley Avenue. On the night of Feb. 17, Gilberto Molina, a 44-year-old native of Puerto Rico, became the third pedestrian to be struck and killed by a car in New Haven already this year when he was hit on Columbus Avenue near West Street.
And this past weekend police arrested a woman for driving under the influence and hitting a 42-year-old woman who remained Monday in “critical but stable” condition at Yale-New Haven Hospital