Police said they have arrested a Danbury woman on multiple charges in connection with a serious  nighttime motor vehicle accident on Berkshire Road (Route 34) near the Monroe town line in June, in which that woman and two passengers in her vehicle were injured when it tumbled down a ravine along the roadway.

Police said that after learning that they held a warrant for her arrest, Carissa Ashley Russo, 24, of Danbury went to the police station on the night of October 3 and was charged with two counts of second-degree assault with a motor vehicle. The assault charges are felonies.

Police also charged Russo with driving under the influence, failure to drive in the proper lane, and traveling too fast for conditions.

After processing the arrest, police released Russo on $15,000 bail for an October 17 arraignment on the charges in Danbury Superior Court.

The incident occurred near 329 Berkshire Road late on the night of Saturday, June 21.

The eastbound SUV, while carrying the three 24-year-old women, drove off the right road shoulder and then went down a ravine, striking several trees before coming to rest near a stream.

The intense impacts of the rollover accident resulted in serious injuries to two of the three occupants of the heavily damaged 2011 Audi Q-5 SUV, a compact crossover-style vehicle, officials said.

The two passengers were Nina Leventon and Lindsay Hornyak, both of Danbury, police said.

Several days after the accident, Hornyak was listed as a patient in critical condition in Yale-New Haven Hospital. Russo and Leventon were discharged as patients from St Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport, after treatment for injuries received in the accident.

Multiple emergency service units from Newtown and Monroe responded to the accident scene, as did state police who provided an accident reconstruction team to gather evidence.

A section of Berkshire Road near the accident scene was closed to through-traffic for about six hours as police collected evidence. Motorists were detoured onto other roads in that area, including Jordan Hill Road, Old Zoar Road, and Route 111.

The SUV had come to rest down a steep embankment, about 42 vertical feet below the level of Berkshire Road.

Sandy Hook and Stevenson volunteer firefighters participated in the rescue to lift the three women up the steep embankment and into waiting ambulances for transport to hospitals. Firefighters used ropes to travel down and up the steep slope. 

The SUV drove off Berkshire Road near a turnoff where there is an intentional gap in the flex-beam style metal guardrailing. The Audi apparently drove straight through the guardrail gap before tumbling down the ravine.

The police investigation included interviews with the women and an inspection of the SUV.

Patrol Officer Bart Lorancaitis served as the lead investigator for Newtown police.