Crime & Safety

Motorists Survive Wild Accident on Merritt Parkway that Sends One Car Airborne into Opposite Travel Lanes

Four Transported to Hospital With Non-Life Threatening injuries, Firefighters Say

No one was seriously injured in a wild six-car accident on the Merritt Parkway in Fairfield Saturday morning in which a car hit a berm and went airborne from the northbound to southbound travel lanes, firefighters said.

"The last time I had that, there was a fatal, but this time, the injuries were relatively minor," Assistant Fire Chief Douglas Chavenello said. "When we arrived, everyone was out of the vehicles."

Chavenello said two motorists had been involved in a minor accident on the northbound side of the parkway late Saturday morning and were stopped in the travel lanes. Then, two oncoming motorists on the northbound side, in an effort to avoid striking the two stopped cars, got into an accident and one of those motorists hit a berm on the median and went airborne into the southbound side, striking two more cars, Chavenello said.

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Four people were taken by ambulance to Norwalk Hospital - two by American Medical Response Co. and two by Westport Ambulance, Chavenello said.

Chavenello said the injuries did not appear to be life threatening, which he said was "actually kind of amazing" given the circumstances of the crash. Two cars were destroyed in the crash, Chavenello said.

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Firefighters said an AMR Ambulance got into a minor accident on the parkway en route to the accident.

Chavenello said the dirt berm that caused the motorist to become airborne is on the median of the parkway where motorists travel down a hill toward Black Rock Turnpike. Chavenello said the same accident happened a year ago and someone was killed.

The accident, which happened between exits 42 and 44, is under investigation by State Police and an accident report was expected to be available later. The parkway was briefly closed due to the crash. "Traffic everywhere was messed up," Chavenello said.


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