A 51-year-old Harrison Avenue woman turned herself in to police Thursday on a misdemeanor reckless driving charge in connection with an Oct. 30 four-car accident on Silvermine Road.
A vehicle involved in the 4-car accident on Silvermine Road in New Canaan on Oct. 30, 2014.
The resident was driving a 2010 SUV westbound on Silvermine at 60 mph in a 30 mph zone, coming down the hill toward Little Brook Road, at about 5:30 p.m. when she rear-ended a BMW, according to Sgt. Carol Ogrinc, public information officer of the New Canaan Police Department. The New Canaan woman did not step on her brakes and the rear-ending forced the BMW into an oncoming car driven by a teenager and causing him significant injuries, Ogrinc said, citing the speed and travel information from a data recorder.
The woman turned herself in at 8:30 a.m. on March 19, according to Ogrinc. She was released on $500 bond and scheduled to appear March 31 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.
Michael Bivona, Jr. in the hospital following the Oct. 30, 2014 head-on crash on Silvermine Road. A preliminary police report of the accident indicated that a New Canaan woman traveling at excessively high speed caused the crash by rear-ending the vehicle in front of her. Contributed
No one else was charged in the accident, Ogrinc said. It isn’t immediately clear what were the results of toxicology tests.
The young man who was hurt worst in the accident—what police called “life-threatening injuries” in its aftermath—Michael Bivona Jr. of Stamford, 19, in January met the firefighters who extricated him from his Subaru and saved his life, during a special ceremony.
Bivona Jr. has said he remembers nothing of the horrific four-car crash. A fourth vehicle that had been traveling behind Bivona also was damaged, officials said.
Michael Bivona, Jr., 18, greets Firefighter Paul Wilson during the Jan. 13, 2015 ceremony at Lapham Community Center where eight New Canaan firefighters received a unit citation for helping to save the teen’s life in the aftermath of a horrific four-car crash on Oct. 30. Credit: Michael Dinan
At the January ceremony, Fire Commission Chairman Jack Horner said that in the aftermath of the accident, Engine 1 and Rescue 5—together with the New Canaan Police Department and New Canaan Volunteer Ambulance Corps—found four vehicles involved in a heavy collision, with three off the road.
“Two of the drivers were able to self-extricate from their damaged cars without assistance,” Horner said. “There were drivers trapped in the other two vehicles. The first extrication was relatively simple. An SUV was lying on its passenger side in the woods against a tree. A team stabilized the SUV with tools we use so that it would not roll over any further, and then assisted the driver in self-extricating, through the driver’s door window.”
One motor vehicle involved in the 4-car accident on Silvermine Road in New Canaan on the evening of Oct. 30, 2014.
Bivona Jr. had been in his compact car off the road and on sloping ground. Firefighters used hydraulic cutters and removed the car’s roof and front doors.
“The driver was pinned in his seat by the crushed car side panels, deformed drivers’ seat and crushed dashboard,” Horner said at the ceremony. “His feet were also entangled by the twisted metal of the car’s firewall.”
Ultimately, Bivona Jr. suffered torn ligaments in his ankles, broken femur, seven broken ribs, broken collarbone, broken elbow, stretched ligaments in his neck, lacerated liver, damaged spleen and punctured lung. (A lawsuit is likely, officials have said.)