Connecticut Post Online
MILFORD, Conn. — A video of the June 13 crash that killed two Orange teens shows a Milford police cruiser traveling at a 94mph as it struck the young couple’s car under a flashing traffic signal.
The video released Tuesday is from the dashboard camera of another Milford cruiser, and shows Officer Jason Anderson’s car pass on the right and plow into the 2008 Mazda carrying Ashlie Krakowski and David Servin. The Mazda was struck as it made a left turn from the Boston Post Road onto Dogwood Road at 2:13 a.m., sparks and small flames shooting from underneath the vehicle.
Officer Rick Pisani at one point was travelling more than 70 miles per hour, according to the dashboard camera, as he and Anderson returned to Milford after a mutual aid call in West Haven. Pisani was going about 65 miles per hours when Anderson shot past him on the right; the speed limit on that stretch of the Boston Post Road is 40 miles per hour.
The two-minute video segment was released in response to a state Freedom of Information request by the Connecticut Post. It covers the nearly half-mile stretch between the Utopia 77 Lounge in West Haven, where the officers left from, and the crash site. An earlier video segment, also screened Tuesday by Chief Keith Mello, shows Pisani leaving the scene of the West Haven mutual aid call while Anderson’s cruiser is still there.
Anderson has been charged by state police with two counts of second degree manslaughter in the teens’ deaths. He will be arraigned Nov. 24 in Derby Superior Court and has been suspended with pay.
Pisani is now the subject of an internal investigation into his speed that morning, Mello said. The 39 year-old probationary officer remains on duty, working the night shift.
Servin’s mother, Susan, watched the video Tuesday morning in the victim advocate’s office at Milford Superior Court, accompanied by her attorney, Bart Halloran.
Attorney John Wynne viewed the video at the same time, at the request of Ken Krakowski, Ashlie’s father.
“It was horrific, frankly,’' Halloran said. “It was shocking to see that type of behavior. The cruiser taking the video is going 66 to 72 miles per hour with no explicable reason.
“We’d have concerns about him driving a car,’' the Servins’ attorney said of Pisani. Both officers were “playing fast and loose with people’s lives, to do that kind of speed at any time of day.’'
Mello confirmed that neither Milford cruiser had its light bar or siren on, and that neither officer was being dispatched to another call at the time of the crash.
State law requires police officers traveling without lights and sirens, and not dispatched on a call, to obey prevailing speed limits, the chief said.
Wynne said that he was told by state police that Anderson was traveling 94 miles per hour just before the impact. “That is 138 feet per second, which doesn’t leave much reaction time for another driver,’' he said.
The video does not give a true impression of Anderson’s speed because it is being taken from a vehicle that is also traveling very fast, Krakowski’s lawyer said.
The lawyers said in separate interviews that they have not had access to the vehicles involved and still do not know which of the two teens were driving at the time of the crash.
“Even if my client was the passenger, we don’t intend to file suit against the driver,’' Halloran said. “We will be going after the party who is responsible for the collision.’'
Although police found a small amount of marijuana in the couple’s car, a toxicology report found no traces of the drug in their blood, Halloran said.
Wynne said that he has not been provided a copy of the arrest warrant affidavit for Jaycen Munro, a Milford resident state police have charged with serving alcohol to minors on the night of the crash.
Krakowski’s lawyer said he doesn’t know if Ashlie and Dave attended the party Munro gave, or whether either of them consumed any alcohol.
The affidavit was not available late Tuesday afternoon from Milford Superior Court, where Munro is to be arraigned on Nov. 25.
The cruiser that Pisani was driving on June 13 is one of only two in the Milford department’s 25-car patrol fleet equipped with a dashboard camera, Mello said. The department plans to use a $79,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to equip seven more patrol cars with cameras, he said.
The camera, manufactured by I-COP, constantly captures data, Captain Tracy Mooney said, but only records it when a cruiser’s lights and siren are activated.
Mello said that the camera has the ability to go back 60 seconds from the moment the lights and siren are switched on and store video from that point.
Pisani switched on his vehicle’s emergency devices when he saw the crash happen in front of him, which preserved the moment of impact on video.
Copyright 2009 Connecticut Post Online