After two serious crashes in one day on a busy stretch of road in Wethersfield resulted in at least two deaths, drivers would like to see safety improvements to prevent future fatalities.
On Saturday, Wethersfield police said they first responded to the 1100 block of Silas Deane Highway to find the driver of a Kia had crashed into a garbage truck. The driver was extricated from the vehicle and taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. He died of his injuries six days later, according to police. A second person was also taken to the hospital, police said.
Roughly 12 hours later, police responded to the 1200 block of Silas Deane Highway after two vehicles collided head-on. Officers said two occupants, both with life-threatening injuries, were taken to the hospital. Hours later, police said both had died.
While police haven’t said what led up to the crashes, drivers told NBC Connecticut that the area is notorious for speeders.
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“There’s got to be some sort of improvement in that system of Silas Deane Highway. People coming off the 91 exchange, they come fast on the rampways, and they think Silas Deane is another raceway,” Carolenna DiMarco, of Cromwell, said.
DiMarco frequents the area to shop, and said she fears for her safety when she’s on the busy stretch.
“I’m constantly turning my head, and I watch people that go through red lights, they don’t pay attention to any of the signs. They get confused and they do U-turns, they do a lot of erroneous activity on the Silas Deane,” she said.
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Frank Forrest, of East Hartford, ventured to a shop on Saturday and saw the scene of the two-car collision.
“I saw in the rear-view mirror flashing lights in the area of the highway,” Forrest said. “I found out later that’s where two people were killed.”
According to date from the Connecticut Transportation Institute, there have been four fatal crashes on Route 99 since 2015. Three of those crashes happened in the same 1100-1200 block of roadway.
“Silas Deane Highway and so many other of our roadways are just seeing people driving way too fast, not a couple miles an hour over the speed limit, but 10 to 20 miles an hour over the speed limit,” Josh Morgan of the Connecticut Department of Transportation said. “We're seeing people texting and driving, watching videos while they're driving, things that are taking their focus off the roadway.”
Morgan said there have been 283 fatal crashes in the state so far this year. Last year, that number was roughly 367.
Here is a breakdown of fatal crashes on state roadways since 2015:
“The data paints a pretty bleak picture on what's happening on Connecticut roadway,” Morgan said. “Those are human lives that are being lost on our roadway, and really the vast majority are due to three things: speeding, distractions and impairment.”
“We just ask motorists to take that responsibility of getting behind the wheel seriously,” he continued. “They're in thousands of pounds of steel, and when you're driving incredibly fast, that's basically a weapon on the roadway.”
