One Killed, Five Hospitalized in I-95 South Crash in Branford

A wrong-way driver was killed and five people were sent to the hospital after a four-car crash on Interstate 95 south in Branford early Sunday morning.

Mary E. Chiapulis, 55, of Boylston, Massachusetts, died after driving the wrong way in her 2009 Hundai Elantra and crashing into three other cars near the Branford Service Plaza on I-95 South between exits 53 and 54 at 12:48 a.m. Sunday, according to state police.

Police said Chiapulis, who was driving the wrong way against oncoming traffic, struck the passenger side of a 2004 Acura MDX driven by Franck Dalembert, 54, of Norwalk, with the driver's side of her vehicle and then hit a 2008 Ford driven by Daniel Rizzo, 30, of Milford, head on in the left lane on the three-lane highway.

Patsy Depalmer, 50, of Woodbridge, swerved to avoid the collission between Chiapulis and Rizzo, but Chiapulis spun toward the right lane and hit the front left corner of Depalmer's 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

“When we arrived, we were faced with multiple patients, including one in traumatic cardiac arrest as well as others with what appeared to be life-threatening injuries,” Branford Fire Department Deputy Chief William Pepe said in a statement on the Branford Fire Department's Facebook page. “One of the patients needed to be extricated from their vehicle using the Jaws of Life. Due to the resources required and the number of patients we needed to treat, we requested East Haven Fire Department for mutual aid."

The airbag in the car Chiapulis was driving did not deploy, according to state police.

Ambulances from Branford and Guilford fire departments transported six people to Yale-New Haven Hospital, but Chiapulis died at the hospital.

Dalembert and his passenger Dionne McCarthy, 47, of Stratford, and Rizzo and his passengers Anthony C. Lazzara, 28, of Ansonia, and Michael A. Hough, 22, of Ansonia were among those suffering from injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening.

I-95 south was closed in that area for about three hours as state police investigated.

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