Thomas Breen photo
Foxon & Middletown, near site of Saturday's fatal crash.
A state-funded local plan to build traffic-calming medians on Foxon Boulevard moved forward at City Hall — several days before a 22-year-old driver lost his life in a fiery crash on the state-owned speedway itself.
That painful juxtaposition of future traffic safety efforts on Foxon Boulevard’s Rt. 80 with the present day reality of just how dangerous that stretch of road is took place over the past several days.
On Wednesday night, during the latest monthly online meeting of the City Plan Commission, the local land-use commissioners unanimously endorsed a city proposal to accept a $1.6 million state grant that will be used to construct “lit medians” on Foxon Boulevard from Middletown Avenue to Quinnipiac Avenue.
A letter written by City Engineer Giovanni Zinn to the Board of Alders on April 29 states that the roadway improvements “will consist of lit medians through this corridor and will provide benefits including better illumination, narrowing the roadway, pedestrian refuge, and traffic calming.”
The city will be responsible for the design and construction of these improvements by August 2025, after which the state Department of Transportation will repave the roadway, according to Zinn’s letter.
“It’s a corridor that really needs a lot of help,” Zinn told the City Plan Commissioners on Wednesday. The formal acceptance of the state’s $1.6 million “is a very important step” towards getting this traffic safety work done.
As City Plan Commission Chair Leslie Radcliffe made clear during the meeting, the resolution before the commission was simply a request by the city to accept state money for traffic calming on Foxon Boulevard. This is a state-owned road. “Those safety improvements ultimately are under the purview of the state,” Zinn said.
The commissioners voted unanimously to recommend approval of the city accepting this $1.6 million state grant. The resolution now heads to the Board of Alders for further review and a potential final vote.
In a follow-up email on Monday, Zinn told the Independent that, in the near term, traffic safety plans for Foxon include installing medians with lighting to reduce the width of the roadway as well as connecting the northern sidewalk network east from Walmart.
“The short-term project over the next year+ will provide significant traffic safety and pedestrian safety improvements by providing protected, well-lit pedestrian connectivity that stand on their own, while also further setting the stage for other improvements in the future,” he wrote. And in the medium term, the state Department of Transportation is “looking at improvements to the exit ramp on the south side of Foxon Blvd to enable safe pedestrian crossing of the exit area.” The city is also working on a plan to provide a pedestrian connection to Fair Haven along the city-owned portion of Middletown west of I‑91.
Meanwhile, three days after the City Plan Commission heard this item, a fatal crash took place on Foxon — ending the life of a 22-year-old driver from New Britain.
According to an email press release sent out by New Haven Police Department spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart, at around 3:29 a.m. on Saturday, May 18, city police responded to the intersection of Foxon and Middletown Avenue for the report of a two-vehicle collision.
On arrival, officers found a black BMW that had crashed into the passenger side of a tractor trailer. “A resulting fire engulfed both vehicles resulting in significant damage.”
The 22-year-old driver of the BMW “was pulled from the vehicle by a passerby” and then transported by ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased. The operator of the tractor-trailer was not injured in the crash, was able to exit his vehicle after the collision, and “is cooperating with investigators.” The New Haven Fire Department responded to the scene to extinguish the fire.
Police had not identified the deceased at the time of Bruckhart’s press release pending notifications to his family.
Police ask that anyone who may have witnessed this incident or who may have information valuable to investigators to call detectives at 203 – 946-6304 or through the department’s anonymous tip line at 866 – 888-8477.
“The crash this weekend reinforces just how important” the traffic calming improvements to Foxon are, Mayor Justin Elicker told the Independent about both the $1.6 million grant and Saturday’s fatal crash. He noted that there has been a lot of drag racing on this stretch of Foxon. “These improvements will help.”
Looking east on Foxon from Middletown.
A memorial to Middletown Ave fatal crash victim Raymond Sobask, who died in 2022.