Three Hospitalized In Botsford Crash

By Andrew Gorosko

A long section of South Main Street fell eerily silent Tuesday afternoon following a three-vehicle accident in which a subcompact car carrying three local people collided head-on with an oncoming empty flatbed tractor-trailer truck, hospitalizing the three people in the car, creating a fuel spill, and causing lengthy travel delays on the heavily used road.

The three Sandy Hook residents who were traveling in a 2000 Volkswagen Beetle were patients in Danbury Hospital Thursday morning. They are Robert Karnoff, 44, of 66 Great Ring Road; Mr Karnoff’s daughter, Rachel, age 5; and her friend, Hannah Eckhardt, 7, of 73 Great Ring Road. Robert Karnoff was reported in fair condition Thursday morning. The two children were in good condition Thursday morning, having improved since Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said. 

Tractor-trailer truck driver Horasio Lopez, 35, of Bridgeport was treated for injuries at the hospital and released.

A third driver involved in the crash, Peter B. Reeb, 51, of Bethel, who was driving a 1995 Dodge Caravan minivan, was not injured, according to police patrol officer Michael Edis, who investigated the accident.

The Volkswagen and the truck each were traveling about 40 miles per hour about 1:30 pm when the collision occurred, police said. The crash might have been more serious if the truck’s trailer had been carrying a load, increasing the truck’s weight.

Mr Karnoff was driving the Volkswagen northbound near the Bay Colony Trailer Park when he was apparently distracted by the children, who were seatbelted in the back seat, police said. The Volkswagen then veered into the northbound lane into the path of the oncoming southbound truck and collided with the truck, police said.

The left-front quarters of each vehicle struck each other, resulting in the Volkswagen going to the right side of the northbound lane, and the truck driving off the right side of the southbound lane and into a wooded area, ripping off the truck cab’s undercarriage, police said.

After the initial impact, the Dodge, which had been traveling northbound behind the Volkswagen, drove into the wreckage of the crash, police said.

Mr Reeb, and other people in the area at the time of the accident, helped the Volkswagen’s occupants get out of the tiny car, police said. Mr Karnoff, who was wearing a seatbelt, reportedly had been partially ejected from the vehicle by the impact of the crash.

The collision caused a diesel fuel tank on the truck to rupture, spewing fuel onto the southbound lane of the road. Botsford firefighters went to the scene to contain the spill. The state Department of Environmental Protection later arrived to supervise the fuel spill cleanup.

Three Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps ambulance crews and two regional paramedics also responded to the crash.

The heavily used section of South Main Street from Botsford Hill Road to Cold Spring Road was completely closed to traffic from about 1:30 to 3:30 pm Tuesday, resulting in traffic delays and motorists taking detours. One lane of South Main Street reopened at 3:30 pm, with both lanes back in use by 4:30 pm, police said.

Police issued Mr Karnoff an infraction ticket on a charge of failure to keep to the right.