Police Continue Probe Into Fatal Motor Vehicle Accident

By Andrew Gorosko

Police are continuing their investigation into a Ridgefield man’s death caused by a motor vehicle accident that occurred last month on Hawleyville Road (Route 25) in Hawleyville, Police Chief Michael Kehoe said this week.

 “The investigators are still looking at certain things…We’re trying to determine the cause of the accident,” Chief Kehoe said.

At about 2:38 pm on January 14, Kenneth C. Bailin, 51, of 49 Crest Road, Ridgefield, was outside of his 2002 GMC Sonoma pickup truck, which was parked on the paved northbound road shoulder of Hawleyville Road, near its intersection with Covered Bridge Road, when northbound motorist Trisia L. Hernandez, 26, of Waterbury, who was driving a 2000 Pontiac Sunfire coupe northward, struck both Bailin and the pickup truck, according to police.

Mr Bailin received serious head and leg injuries in the accident. He was pronounced dead the next day at Danbury Hospital, where he had been taken for treatment following the accident.

Police are seeking to learn exactly why the Pontiac that Ms Hernandez was driving left the northbound travel lane and collided with Mr Bailin and his pickup truck on the paved road shoulder, according to Chief Kehoe.

Besides interviewing witnesses including Ms Hernandez, police have had the vehicles involved in the accident inspected to learn whether the vehicles had any functional problems, he said.

Ms Hernandez has provided police with a statement about the accident, the police chief said.

Following the accident, Ms Hernandez was treated for head and neck pain at Danbury Hospital and then released.

Police are seeking to learn more about the “point of contact” that occurred when the Pontiac collided with the GMC, Chief Kehoe said. “This is a complex investigation,” he said.

Police Patrol Officer Jeff Silver is the lead investigator and is being aided by other police, Chief Kehoe said.

It is yet unclear whether charges would be filed against Ms Hernandez, Chief Kehoe said. Also, it is unclear how long it would take to complete the investigation, he added.

In such investigations, police may consult with the State’s Attorney Office at Danbury Superior Court in determining how to proceed with the case.

Chief Kehoe termed the investigation a “high priority” case for town police that is being thoroughly pursued.

Asked about the range of prosecutorial possibilities facing Ms Hernandez, Chief Kehoe said that they range from taking no action against her to pursuing a charge of negligent homicide with a motor vehicle.

Following the accident, the section of Hawleyville Road lying between its intersections with Mt Pleasant Road and Interstate 84 was closed to through-traffic for more than five hours as the police department’s accident reconstruction team investigated the accident. Hawleyville firefighters assisted.

Police used laser-based measuring devices to collect the accident evidence that will be described in their investigatory report.

The January 14 accident on Hawleyville Road was the first fatal motor vehicle accident which the town police department investigated since the night of Easter Sunday in April 2006, when a Danbury woman died after a one-car collision on nearby Mt Pleasant Road.