Local Man Involved In Two Accidents Arrested On Five Charges

By Andrew Gorosko

A local man was involved in two motor vehicle accidents within several minutes on Tuesday afternoon. The second accident was a serious rollover collision, from which the man fled on foot but was soon caught by police.

Police Patrol Officer Lenny Penna said police received a call at 2:27 pm reporting a sideswipe accident at the intersection of Hanover Road and Echo Valley Road, in which a sport-utility vehicle left the scene of the collision.

In that accident, motorist Scott Tainter-Gilbert, 36, of 40 Black Bridge Road, who was driving a 1999 Subaru Outback, sideswiped a 1999 GMC Yukon driven by Judith Saunders, 49, of 24 Horseshoe Ridge Road, police said. There were no injuries in that crash, police said.

The GMC had been stopped behind another stopped vehicle when it was struck by the Subaru, which then drove away southward on Hanover Road, police said.

Shortly after learning of that accident, police received a report of another accident about two miles away on the Schoolhouse Hill Road bridge that crosses above the Housatonic Railroad’s train tracks. That rollover accident was reported as requiring an extrication, so Newtown Hook & Ladder and Sandy Hook firefighters were dispatched to the scene.

Officer Penna said the description of the evading vehicle involved in the sideswipe accident matched the description of the vehicle that rolled over on Schoolhouse Hill Road.

On arriving at the second accident, the policeman looked inside the damaged SUV seeking to learn whether anyone inside required extrication.

A witness at the scene then told police that the overturned SUV’s driver had broken open the front windshield and climbed through it, fleeing the crash on foot, heading eastward on Schoolhouse Hill Road.

Officer Penna said he then spotted the bleeding Tainter-Gilbert fleeing the accident, after which he apprehended him about 50 yards from the crash, making him lie down on the street.

Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps members then tended to Tainter-Gilbert, transporting him to Danbury Hospital for treatment of his injuries.

After hospital treatment, police returned Tainter-Gilbert to the police station where they arrested him on charges of driving under the influence, evading responsibility, making a restricted turn, driving while under suspension, and driving an unregistered vehicle.

Police held Tainter-Gilbert on $1,000 bail overnight for an arraignment on the charges the following day in Danbury Superior Court.