Wrong Way Driver Takes my Cousin
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:26 am
Just be cautious, never know who your sharing the road with.
http://naugatuck.patch.com/articles/bea ... d-on-crash
http://naugatuck.patch.com/articles/bea ... d-on-crash
A 24-year-old Beacon Falls man who was involved in a car accident on Route 8 in Naugatuck Saturday night has died.
William J. Baer Jr. was pronounced dead Sunday at Waterbury Hospital, according to the hospital’s nursing supervisor.
Baer was the driver of a car that was traveling in the southbound lane of Route 8 just north of Exit 27 in Naugatuck when it was struck head-on by a van. Police said the van’s driver, 35-year-old Edmundo Mendieta of New Haven, was driving the wrong way on the highway – he was headed northbound in the southbound lane.
Baer’s lone passenger, 22-year-old Sara Chmielewski of Stratford, was listed in critical condition at Waterbury Hospital as of Sunday afternoon.
Mendieta was taken to Saint Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury and was listed in stable condition as of Sunday afternoon, according to nursing supervisor at that hospital.
Mendieta was operating a white 2003 Chevrolet van when it collided at 10 p.m. with a blue 2008 Honda Accord that Baer was driving.
A preliminary state police report did not indicate whether any of the three were wearing seatbelts.
No charges had been filed as of Sunday as the accident remains under investigation. A state police accident reconstruction team is expected to fully examine the details of the incident.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Farmington will conduct an autopsy on Baer either Monday or Tuesday.
This type of incident has happened way too often in my neck of the woods. Just last month a car full of BGSU female students were happily on their way to Detroit metro airport for a spring break trip. They NEVER made it and three of the four young ladies were killed instantly from a wrong way driver on I-75 
Then a couple weeks later on the same road, I-75, a female driver was going the wrong way BUT was caught and had the nerve to plead "no contest" when she was obviously guilty of driving the wrong way. Also a few years ago, some drunk man was traveling northbound on I-280 in the southbound lanes and took out a complete family of FIVE just before the Michigan state line. Will this ever end? Unfortunately NO. 
