Two Escape Serious Injury In Glen Road Rollover Accident

By Andrew Gorosko

A sport-utility vehicle traveling on Glen Road in Sandy Hook on the morning of Tuesday, February 6, became involved in a weather-related rollover accident, in which it left the roadway, went over guardrailing and rolled down a very steep bank, coming to rest alongside the Pootatuck River.

Police patrolman Steve Ketchum said police learned of the accident about 11:24 am February 6, after the victims of the crash had managed to get out of the vehicle, walk about a half mile, and report the accident.

Patrolman Ketchum said motorist Michelle Lowe, 21, of 16 Buttonball Drive, Sandy Hook, was driving a 1998 Jeep Cherokee northbound on Glen Road, about 200 feet south of its intersection with Cherry Street, when she lost control of the vehicle on a slushy road, climbed up a compacted snow bank along a steel guardrail on the southbound road shoulder, went over the guardrail, and then rolled over several times, tumbling down the very steep bank, before coming to rest upside-down about five feet from the Pootatuck River. The river runs through a ravine in the area.

Patrolman Ketchum estimated the Jeep rolled down a 20-foot vertical drop, traveling about 60 feet in doing so.

After the Jeep came to a stop, Ms Lowe and a passenger, Jeffrey Randall, 20, of 34 Glen Road, who both were wearing seatbelts, got out of the crashed vehicle, made their way up the embankment, and walked about one-half mile to Randall’s home where they called police, Patrolman Ketchum said.

Randall received a minor arm cut in the accident, police said.

Both Ms Lowe and Mr Randall refused medical treatment from the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, police said.

Ms Lowe and Mr Randall were fortunate that they were not seriously injured in the crash, Patrolman Ketchum said.

It took two wreckers to get the Jeep pulled up and out of the accident scene, from which it was towed. Police closed a section of Glen Road to traffic, creating detours, while the wreckers were at work.

Police issued Ms Lowe an infraction ticket on a charge of failure to drive to the right.