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source: http://www.lowellsun.com/front/ci_8230702
Woman dead, another charged in multicar Connector crash
By Robert Mills, rmills@lowellsun.com
Article Last Updated: 02/11/2008 04:53:11 PM EST
LOWELL - A 23-year-old Fitchburg woman is dead, a Lowell man is recovering from serious injuries and a 19-year-old woman is behind bars on drunken-driving charges after an accident turned into horror on the Lowell Connector early yesterday morning.
Police said everything started at about 3 a.m. when a 1997 Honda sedan driven by Donald S. Chea, 27, of Lowell, struck a bridge abutment on the left side of the two-lane ramp from Route 3 north to the Lowell Connector. Chea's car came to a stop across both lanes of traffic.
Chea and a passenger, Denn S. Touch, 23, of Fitchburg, were able to get out of the Honda, and another driver, 39-year-old Tony Yan of Lowell, pulled over in the breakdown lane to help, police said. The timeline of events was not immediately clear, according to State Police Lt. Eric Anderson, but it appears Chea was working on his car, possibly changing a tire.
"He was trying to get his car going," Anderson said. "Yan tried to get them off the highway." It was not immediately clear if police and firefightershad been called at that point, but they had not yet arrived on the scene.
That is when a 2004 Toyota sedan driven by Lyly T. Tran, 19, of Lowell, approached on the same on-ramp.
Tran's Toyota struck Touch as she stood on the road, then slammed into Chea's Honda, creating an impact that hurled the Honda into Chea, and then hit Yan's car.
State police were contacted about that second crash at 3:21 a.m., but it was too late for Touch.
She was pronounced dead at the scene. Chea was sped to Lahey Clinic in Burlington, where he was listed in critical condition last night.
Tran, along with two passengers in her Toyota, Lisa Santersola, 18, of Dracut, and Lucille Manisy, 19, of Lowell, were treated at city hospitals and released.
Police say Tran was arrested upon her release from the hospital and charged with operating under the influence of alcohol.
She was still being held on $25,000 cash bail at the state police barracks in Andover last night, and was to be arraigned this morning in Lowell District Court.
State police could not immediately say if the charges against her could be upgraded, and a spokesman for District Attorney Gerard Leone did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
State police said it was not immediately clear what caused Chea to lose control initially. That is one of many questions that will be answered by an investigation that includes accident reconstruction.
No one answered the door or telephone calls at Touch's home in Fitchburg yesterday. Addresses and telephone listings for Chea and the others involved could not immediately be found.
The ramp was closed for about three hours yesterday morning while police investigated.
The accident is just the latest across the state in which people have been killed in travel lanes on major highways, and Anderson repeated a frequent warning that pedestrians should never be in travel lanes.
"Certainly, if you have a crash, try to get off the road if you can," he said. "If you get out of your car, get off the side of the road. It's just too dangerous out there and (drivers) don't expect to see anything in the roadway."
The fatality was the first in more than a year on the Connector, a notoriously dangerous highway.
On Nov. 3, 2005, a horrific crash that claimed the lives of 31-year-old Deborah Hornberger, of Leominster, and her unborn child spurred the state to make serious changes to the highway.
In that accident, a car that was drag racing crossed the median on the Connector, went airborne, and landed on Hornberger's car. It occurred the same day a story in The Sun identified the highway as the most dangerous in the state. It led to a $3.5 million project to install guardrails, rumble strips and more visible traffic lights.
Sen. Steven Panagiotakos filed a bill that increases the penalties for drag racing as a result of that crash. Hornberger's widower testified in support of the measure on Beacon Hill less than three months ago and the legislation was approved Nov. 28.
Before yesterday morning, there had been only one fatality on the highway since November 2005. Walter Lawless, 23, of Dunstable, was killed on Jan. 6, 2007, when a sport-utility vehicle he was riding in struck a bridge abutment, crossed the road and struck a guardrail near the Plain Street exit.
smh @ ol girl. shorty got no butttoo.
