(Updated: 5:36 p.m.) Gabrielle Lee, 11, was crossing Whalley Avenue to pick up some clothes at a laundromat when a car slammed into her.
The girl was thrown into the air by the impact of the crash, according to police. She was hit at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the intersection of Whalley and Davis Street. She died a few hours later at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
As her family grappled with the sudden loss of their child, police continued Thursday to search for the driver who fled after hitting her.
Police are appealing to the public and auto-body shops to look out for the offending car, described as a 1999 – 2005 Volkswagen Jetta, dark color, with front-end damage. The car may be blue or black. Anybody with information on the crash should contact the New Haven Police at (203) 946‑8584 or (203) 946‑6304.
Lt. Joe Witkowski (pictured above), deputy patrol coordinator of the New Haven PD, made that plea and shared a few more details of the accident in an afternoon press conference:
Gabrielle lived with her family on Fairfield Street. They had been doing their laundry at the Top Kat Super Laundromat Wednesday evening. She returned with some family members, including her parents, to pick up the laundry at about 9:30 p.m. As Gabrielle crossed Whalley Avenue, she was struck by a westbound car. The car propelled her in the air.
She was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where she struggled to stay alive but did not make it through the night, Witkowski said. He said he didn’t know where Gabrielle’s family members were standing when she was struck by the car.
Gabrielle was a student in the fifth grade at The Elm City Prep School. Grief counselors from the Yale Child Study Center were working at the school today to help students through the tragedy.
A Dangerous Roadway
The intersection where she was hit is notorious for cars zooming down Whalley blowing the red light, Witkowski said. He did not have any information as to whether the driver who hit Gabrielle was speeding, or whether the light was green or red.
The Jetta that hit her had “significant” damage to its front end, Witkowski said. Police found pieces of the car in the street when they showed up. One was a plastic grill, or spoiler, that came off from under the car’s bumper. The car part had a logo on it, leading police to identify the type of vehicle.
Witkowski said police are now focusing on tracking down the car. They will get a better idea of what happened last night after taking down detailed witness statements. Accident investigations are very time-consuming, he said, often taking several months to gather information before prosecution begins.
Hit-and-runs are common in cities, driven in part by socio-economic factors, Witkowski said: People often don’t stop at a scene because they are driving with no insurance, no license or a suspended license. Of the city’s 8,000 motor-vehicle accidents that happened in 2007, 22 percent were hit-and-runs, he said. The city gave out 3,000 tickets that year for drivers who had no license or a suspended license.
Wednesday’s crash has struck a nerve with traffic calming activists already reeling from a fatal crash in April, when medical student Mila Rainof was killed. That incident has spurred traffic officials, students and bike activists to band together to call for safer streets.
Nationwide in 2006, 5,000 pedestrians died in car accidents —about one every two hours. New Haven has seen 30 pedestrian-involved accidents in the first four months of this year, Witkowski said.
Wednesday’s crash came on the heels of a chilling hit-and-run in Hartford where a 78-year-old man was run over while crossing the street. A surveillance video shows passersby calmly walking by or driving away from the scene while the victim lay dying in the street. Click here to view the video and read a Courant article.
That film has sent shock waves through the state and prompted the Hartford police chief to decry the “inhumanity” of those who turn a blind eye to crime or do not accept responsibility for their actions. The hit-and-runs prompted this message from Gov. M. Jodi Rell late Thursday afternoon:
“These incidents and others – such as the savage and inexplicable, indefensible attack on former Hartford Deputy Mayor Nick Carbone on Monday – shock our state to the core,” Rell said in the statement. “Such violence simply will not be tolerated. Those who are responsible must be identified, prosecuted and punished.”