New Haven Independent
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The driver of a stolen car that fled police before fatally crashing into a tree in Westville Sunday morning was a 13-year-old boy. The car’s female passenger, who also died in the crash, has yet to be identified.
Mayor Justin Elicker and Acting Police Chief David Zannelli provided that update during a Wednesday afternoon press conference at police quarters at 1 Union Ave.
The presser mostly concerned an unrelated matter — Monday’s sudden, scandal-plagued retirement of Police Chief Karl Jacobson after he allegedly admitted to stealing money from the department’s confidential informants fund.
At the end of Wednesday’s press conference, Elicker and Zannelli provided an update on the early Sunday morning crash that killed two people — the car’s operator and a right-front passenger.
As Zannelli explained, the crash took place at around 4:52 a.m. on Sunday on Whalley Avenue near Harrison Street.
A Hyundai Elantra — later determined to be stolen — fatally crashed into a tree by the property of Beth El Keser Israel synagogue. Before the crash, New Haven police “were attempting to initiate a traffic stop” after the car reportedly almost collided with a marked New Haven Police Department vehicle.
Zannelli stressed that city police tried to stop the car not because it was stolen, but because the vehicle “intentionally swerved at officers” and almost hit a police cruiser.
Elicker said that the male driver has been identified as a 13-year-old boy who was a New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) student. The female in the front passenger seat who also died in the crash had still not yet been identified.
State police are leading the investigation, and no officers were hurt during the incident.
Elicker and Zannelli said they still do not know the age of the female passenger victim. (They did not name the 13-year-old male operator of the car at Wednesday’s presser.)
“This incident happened over the weekend and we still don’t know who this young person is,” Elicker said about the female passenger. He asked for the media’s and public’s help identifying the passenger; state police plan on releasing a description of her later on Wednesday.
Elicker also said he spoke earlier this week with the mom of the 13-year-old boy who was driving the car and died in the crash. “She is devastated,” he said.
Asked if any kind of traffic-calming measures are needed on this stretch of Whalley to improve safety, Elicker replied that no level of traffic calming is going to help with a situation like this.
“This was two people that had stolen a car, were driving erratically, and were swerving intentionally towards a police car. When the police car activated lights and sirens, they fled and crashed. It is tragic that they are dead, [but] traffic calming is not the way to solve that problem.”
Below is an earlier version of this article, which was first published on Monday, Jan. 5 at 2:19 p.m.
Two people died early Sunday morning after reportedly fleeing city police in a stolen car — and then crashing into a tree by a Westville synagogue.
According to an accident information summary written by State Police — Central District Major Crime (CDMC) Det. James Bria, at around 4:52 a.m. on Sunday, a 2019 Hyundai Elantra was traveling northbound on Whalley Avenue approaching the intersection with Harrison Street when it “departed the right side of the roadway” and entered onto the “roadside/property” of Congregation Beth El Keser Israel synagogue.
“While within the roadside, the Hyundai Elantra collided with a tree. Following impact, the Hyundai Elantra came to rest within the northbound lane of Whalley Avenue.”
Both the operator of the car and the right front passenger died from injuries sustained during the crash.
According to the state police report, prior to the car’s fatal collision with a tree, “New Haven Police Officers were attempting to initiate a traffic stop on the Hyundai Elantra after it was involved in an incident in which it nearly collided with a marked New Haven Police Department patrol vehicle. The Hyundai Elantra was later determined to be stolen.”
State police have not yet released the names of the people who died, as they are still waiting to positively identify them and notify next of kin. City police spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart declined to comment on the incident, deferring instead to state police, who are leading the investigation.
Anyone who witnessed the collision or the moments prior to the collision should contact CDMC Det. James Bria at James.Bria@ct.gov or Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Squad (CARS) Det. Alec DeRosa at Alec.DeRosa@ct.gov.
20 Comments
Just another calm peaceful night in the city of NH.
“It’s 2026 and we clearly see what liberals are doing”.
WaxOff
Slow down. Wear seatbelts.Obey traffic/MV laws. Defensive driving saves lives.
Start with–
Don’t steal cars…
Two youths on the way to an unhappy life of crime. They paid dearly for bad choices…we should tell young people that actions have consequences. This was a deadly one
My condolences to their loved ones for their loss. It’s a terrible thing to lose someone you love for something that was unnecessary.
This isn’t the first time a speeding car crashed in front of the synagogue near the intersection of Harrison and Whalley. It has happened multiple times over the past 60 years, crashing into the synagogue, crashing into the house on the corner taking off its porch, and taking the lives of the drivers and passengers, and the life of an elderly woman crossing the street. The median divider on Whalley between the synagogue and the library has not helped, as you can regularly see the scrape marks and knocked over plantings where vehicles have run them over. Whalley Ave is a state controlled road from Amity to Ella Grasso, and is designed so vehicles regularly speed its length from the Woodbridge line to Elm and Broadway. There needs to be major pedestrian and bike safety infrastructure and traffic calming its entire length, with coordinated traffic lights timing, raised crosswalks, and speed table crosswalks at major intersections, longer crosswalk times, bike lanes, and bus stop pullout zones, and a shared center left turn lane with emergency vehicle priority, to help vehicles turn into and pull out of businesses, and left turn lanes and left turn bike boxes at the intersections.
And the median dividers need to be removed and instead the street narrowed by bike lanes, the center shared left turn lane, a single travel lane in each direction, bus stop pullout zones, and curb bump outs at raised crosswalks.
The rise of the hill from the street to the sidewalk in front of the synagogue from Harrison St to the old Hallocks building (now a Scientology building) should have cast iron bollards to prevent vehicles from leaving the street to cross the sidewalk and the lawn and become airborne as vehicles speed up the hill.
Way too many lives have been unnecessarily lost due to road designs on state controlled roads or roads connected to state controlled road portions in this city and around the state, and it’s high past time that the state and the municipalities do something to protect pedestrians, bike riders, bus riders, and innocent and not so innocent drivers and passengers in vehicles from harm caused by the road designs that are prioritizing swiftly moving vehicles around the state, over the lives and safety of humans.
At 4:52 in the morning, the car nearly struck a police vehicle and sped away when they tried to stop it. Turns out the car was stolen. Eluding police at a high rate of speed, the stolen car crashed and killed the two occupants. That is what is being reported.
Now comes a comment proclaiming that there needs to be a massive redesign of the entire length of Whalley Avenue, blaming road design for this incident. That is laughably off topic and beside the point. Wow.
No it’s not, this entire street has been dangerous for decades, with many lives lost due to vehicles and speeding, and particularly this block has been the site of multiple crashes and lost lives due to its design. Part of why vehicles sped along Whalley is the road design. That’s also part of why people driving stolen vehicles gravitate to the state controlled roads in and around the city, because they want to drive fast and outrun the police, so they choose streets that are easy to speed on. State controlled roads were designed to move vehicles swiftly in and out of the city, not to protect the pedestrians and bike riders who live, work, and play in the city.
Making changes to the street would create conditions where vehicles have to drive slower, at the posted speed limits, and would protect pedestrians. Adding iron bollards in between the sidewalk and the street on the block in front of the synagogue would prevent vehicles speeding up the hill going up onto the rise between the street and the sidewalk, and then going airborne into buildings.
Sounds like they died because they stole a car, ran from the police, and were irresponsible. They are to blame for their deaths. Not the road.
its the New Haven lib way. Blame the road. Blame the police. Never consider any accountability for the criminals
When multiple people have died on one block over many decades due to the road design and speeding on that portion of road making it likely that this will continue to occur, then it’s partly the drivers who speed, but it’s also partly the road design, which if you hit that rise between the road and the sidewalk at a certain speed and the curve of the road, you’re going to have your vehicle launched airborne into a tree or building.
Nobody driving close to the speed limit in the city is getting airborne in their car. I’m sure the car manufacturer will be next to blame.
I grew up on that block of Harrison, I have friends and family who live nearby, and I have seen and heard the many accidents that have occurred there over the decades.
I’m telling you, if they made changes to that block to prevent vehicles hitting that curve and the rise from going up the rise and then going airborne and crashing into buildings and trees, then lives would be saved.
Your non sequiturs continue to be laughably off topic and beside the point. I’m done. I’m sure you are not.
When multiple speeding cars have crashed by leaving the roadway in almost the exact same spot on the same block decade after decade, going up the curve and the rise in the hill from the road to the lawn, and often launching airborne to crash into buildings and trees, you have to ask about what it is about this particular location that creates the circumstances that lead to a predicable almost identical crash scenarios. Go ahead, research the data on the multiple crashes that have happened in this exact same block on the same side of the road going up the hill within that stretch of block from the old Hallocks building to Harrison St and you’ll see they are all almost in the identical spot, give or take a few feet. Then tell me that nothing can be done to prevent the next speeding vehicle going up Whalley from the village that loses control from following almost the exact same path with similar or identical results.
The data doesn’t lie.
Heather, I think there are about a cazillion streets in NH that you could get killed on while speeding or running from the police. If people don’t speed or run from the police there would be a lot less deaths. Maybe we should install signage that says “Dangerous Road” please don’t speed.
WaxOn
Refresh everyone on where you received your civil engineering degree. Thousands of cars travel that road every day, week, and month without incident. One dopey 13-year-old steals a car and crashes it, and suddenly it’s the road’s fault? Typical liberal thinking — everything is blamed except the kid who actually did it. And people wonder why Woodbridge doesn’t want New Haven’s problems.
My condolences to the loved ones of the young driver and the passenger, and all the loved ones of people in the past and in the future who will suffer the same fate in this manner. It’s a terrible thing to lose such young people to foolhardy mistakes they made.
Heather- sometimes I agree with you and sometimes not- earlier today I did in fact. And we know you are a compasionate person But you are off on this one. The stretch of road here is one lane in each direction and is downhill going downtown and uphill towards Amity and is curved and has 3 traffic lights in quick succession. If all those factors dont work- nothing will . A tragedy yes but not the road’s fault. With what you propose, we might as well go back to horse and buggy.
Two young lives lost. Who’s to be held accountable. Those children should be alive. I believe NHPD is responsible. Initiating a traffic stop comes with consequences. Sue the City. NHPD has a poor history of protecting the innocent (Randy Cox).
Sorry for the families that lost loved ones. State and city leadership are to blame! If crimes like car theft, perpetrated by minors continue to go unpunished, reckless behavior like this will only continue…everyone suffers when no one is held accountable for crime
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