Police have identified the man who died in a fatal crash that closed a portion of Townsend Avenue in New Haven for several hours Sunday morning.
Edwin Trelles Calle, 34, of New Haven, lived a block away from the crash scene, police said.
Police, EMTs and firefighters responded to the one-car crash at 4:46 a.m.
Calle was headed southbound on Townsend Avenue in a white, four-door Mazda sedan when his vehicle left the roadway just beyond the Fort Hale Road intersection. His car crashed into one tree and then another on the grass strip next to the sidewalk, according to police. Calle was alone in the car.
Firefighters extricated him from the vehicle and the Office of the Chief State's Medical Examiner removed the body from the scene, where he was pronounced dead at 5:20 a.m.
Townsend Avenue was shut down between Fort Hale Road and Morse Place for several hours as New Haven crash investigators "collected evidence and measurements," police said in a news release.
A neighbor told NBC Connecticut she heard a car speed by and hit a tree at about 4:40 a.m. on Sunday but no sound of screeching tires to indicate it was slowing down.
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Police have not confirmed the cause of the crash and said "such determinations often take weeks." The crash is still under investigation.
Police did not release Calle's address at the request of his family.
The 30-mile-per-hour speed limit on Townsend Avenue turns to 25 just beyond the crash location, but neighbors told NBC Connecticut that cars routinely travel 50 to 60 miles-per-hour on this stretch of Townsend Avenue. There is a slight curve right before the crash site.
