New Haven police have arrested a 36-year-old New Haven man who is accused of hitting a 26-year-old Milford woman on Foxon Boulevard around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 6.
Police said James E. Smith II, of New Haven, hit Meghan Perry as she was crossing Foxon Boulevard and the impact threw her into the air.
An off-duty firefighter who witnessed the crash rushed to help her and an ambulance then rushed Perry to the hospital.
Witnesses told police that Smith had a red light and that cars in the other two northbound lanes had come to a stop, but Smith did not.
When Perry spoke to investigators, she said she was always cautious when she made her trips to the 7-Eleven for cigarettes and her friend recalled waiting for the cars to stop before they stepped from the curb into the marked crosswalk. Police said Smith swerved to avoid the women, but hit Perry, according to police.
Smith, who does not have a driver's license, remained at the scene and cooperated with officers, police said. The car he was driving was unregistered, uninsured and had a misused marker plate.
He was charged with failure of operator to exercise reasonable care when near vulnerable user of a public way, operating an unregistered motor vehicle, misuse of a marker plate, operating a motor vehicle without insurance, operating a motor vehicle without a license and failure to obey a traffic control signal.
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Perry is continuing to recover, police said.
