Non-fatal bike-car crash Tuesday at Orange St. and Lawrence St. In this case, the driver stayed on scene and cooperated with police.
City police have made arrests in two of last year’s fatal hit-and-run incidents — including in a case in which a New Haven driver allegedly struck a pedestrian on Chapel Street, drove for over eight minutes with the injured man lodged in the back of his car, and then stopped only to drag the pedestrian’s body out into the street and abandon him before fleeing the scene.
Police Chief Karl Jacobson and Capt. Rose Dell of the New Haven Police Department’s accident reconstruction team shone a light on those arrests during a Wednesday press conference on the third floor of police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.
Standing alongside Mayor Justin Elicker, police spokesperson Officer Scott Shumway, Asst. Chiefs David Zannelli and Bertram Ettienne, and a handful of other city cops, Jacobson and Dell detailed the NHPD’s arrests of two different drivers involved who struck and killed a cyclist and a pedestrian respectively and then fled the scene in two different hit-and-run incidents from 2021.
Mayor Elicker and Chief Jacobson Wednesday.
“We often in New Haven have a lot of focus on homicides, and that’s rightfully so,” Elicker said at the top of the press conference. But, he said, these cases in which drivers kill pedestrians and cyclists “are also an incredible loss of life and a huge impact on our communities.”
And, he said, they “frankly are avoidable. They’re avoidable because we control as residents of our city how fast we drive, how much we pay attention, how much we do not use our phones, how much we obey traffic signals. … A driver could in an instant kill someone because they are not paying attention or following the law.”
Shumway said that city police officers responded to a total of 8,506 motor vehicle crashes in 2021. Nineteen of those crashes resulted in deaths. So far in 2022, he said, city police have responded to 6,062 motor vehicle crashes, 10 of which have been fatal.
Capt. Dell.
The two hit-and-run incidents that have now led to arrests both took place last fall.
The first, Dell said, occurred on Sept. 6, 2021 at around 9:52 p.m.
A 57-year-old New Haven man was driving a Pontiac G6 westbound on Chapel Street near Norton Street when he struck a 49-year-old New Havener named Michael Santiago as Santiago was “crossing the roadway.”
“The force of the collision caused Santiago to vault over the roofline of the vehicle, break through the rear windshield, and become lodged in the rear compartment of the vehicle,” Dell said.
She said that the driver traveled for approximately eight minutes and 41 seconds with Santiago lodged in the rear compartment of his car.
At 10:01 p.m., the driver stopped his vehicle near Greenwood Street, pulled Santiago’s body out of the compartment in his car, and “dragged the body to the road near the curb.” He left Santiago’s body in the roadway and then fled the scene. Santiago died that night from the injuries he sustained from the crash.
Through video surveillance and an interview with the driver, city police were able to link the driver to that Pontiac G6 vehicle. Police also later discovered DNA from the suspect in the left inner forearm of the pedestrian-victim.
On Sept. 8 of this year, city police arrested the driver, who has been charged with one felony count of first-degree manslaughter among other, evading, and other motor vehicle-related charges. He’s currently being held on a $200,000 bond.
Chief Jacobson.
The second hit-and-run incident that recently led to an arrest occurred on Nov. 7, 2021, at around 5:41 p.m. Dell said that city police responded to the intersection of Grove Street and College Street for a motor vehicle accident.
A bicycle operated by 79-year-old New Havener Stephen Rediker traveled through a red light at Prospect and Grove Streets before heading south on College Street, Dell said. That’s when a black truck made a left turn from Grove Street onto College Street and struck the rear of Rediker’s bicycle.
“The truck stopped momentarily after impact but then fled on College Street towards Wall Street,” Dell said. Rediker was transported by ambulance to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. He died at the hospital six days later.
The break in this case came on Nov. 17, 2021, when police released video of the fatal truck-bike crash to the public. At 8 p.m. that night, Dell said, the evening front desk sergeant received an anonymous call from an individual who said they saw the video of the crash on the news and who provided the location of the offending vehicle in question.
The following day, Dell said, city police interviewed the driver of that vehicle. “In a lengthy and emotion-filled interview,” she said, city police “obtained a confession” from the driver, who was subsequently arrested on June 21 on one felony count of evading.
During Wednesday’s press conference, Jacobson and Dell both said that the driver in the second incident was not responsible for the crash. But he “still fled the scene,” Jacobson said. “You could not be at fault, but if you flee the scene and don’t call 911 and don’t try to get aid to someone, that’s evading.”
In the first incident, Jacobson said, “the motorist was at fault.” Not only that, Dell said, that incident was “certainly more horrific” because of how long the driver continued driving with the injured pedestrian lodged in his vehicle — only to stop and drag the man’s body out of the car and leave him in the roadway.
That’s why the first driver was charged with manslaughter, Dell explained, while the second was charged only with evading.
“Stuff like this directly impacts everybody,” Jacobson said about crash-related deaths on city streets. “Just five weeks ago, my son’s best friend was killed in a motorcycle accident on Middletown Avenue.” He said he was one of the police officers to respond to the scene and identified his son’s best friend who had died. That case is still under investigation. “It was tough,” Jacobson said with emotion.
“We need better traffic enforcement,” the police chief added. “We are doing better, but we can always do better.”
Thomas Breen file photo
Police spokesperson Ofc. Scott Shumway.
Meanwhile, yet another car-bike crash took place Wednesday afternoon.
That crash was not fatal, and was not a hit and run.
Officer Shumway said that, at around 5:21 p.m. Tuesday, a car struck a 42-year-old New Haven man as he was biking through the intersection of Orange Street and Lawrence Street. (See video at the top of this story.)
The cyclist was “alert and conscious” when police responded to the scene, Shumway said. He said that the driver also stayed on the scene and was cooperative. He said that the cyclist was taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
Shumway said that city police have not made any arrests in that incident, and are still currently investigating.
Watch Wednesday’s press conference in full below.