Ridgefield Man Dies

Following Hawleyville Auto Accident

By Andrew Gorosko

Town police this week continued their probe into the death of a Ridgefield man who expired on January 15 after suffering serious injuries in a motor vehicle accident the preceding day on Hawleyville Road (Route 25).

Dead is Kenneth C. Bailin, 51, of 49 Crest Road, Ridgefield. Police said Bailin received serious head and leg injuries in the accident. Bailin was pronounced dead at 2:20 pm on January 15 at Danbury Hospital, where he had been taken following the accident, police said.

Bailin was critically injured, when while outside his pickup truck parked on Hawleyville Road, both he and his truck were struck by a motorist who was driving through the area, according to police.

At about 2:38 pm on January 14, Bailin was outside of his 2002 GMC Sonoma pickup truck, which was parked on the northbound road shoulder of Hawleyville Road, near its intersection with Covered Bridge Road, when northbound motorist Trisia L. Hernandez, 26, of Waterbury, who was driving a 2000 Pontiac Sunfire coupe northward, struck both Bailin and the pickup truck, police said.

Police said their initial investigation showed that Bailin had pulled off onto the northbound road shoulder and was positioned outside of his truck when the collision occurred.

Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps members transported both motorists to Danbury Hospital. Hernandez was treated for head and neck pain and then released, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Hawleyville firefighters responded to the accident scene, spending several hours there.

The section of Hawleyville Road lying between its intersections with Mt Pleasant Road and Interstate 84 was closed to through-traffic until about 8 pm as the police department’s accident reconstruction team investigated the accident.

State police and state Department of Transportation (DOT) workers helped town police establish traffic detours that rerouted motorists away from the area while the accident investigation was underway, according to police Sergeant Aaron Bahamonde. Police allowed residents of the nearby Covered Bridge Road to travel to and from their homes.

Police used laser-based measuring devices to collect the accident evidence that will be described in their investigatory report. Police employed their command vehicle at the accident scene to serve as office space for their work.

People who were driving through the area after the accident occurred aided the severely injured Bailin, said Sgt Bahamonde, who was among the many police who responded to the accident scene.

The sergeant said it is yet unclear why Bailin was outside the truck at the time of the collision.

The accident will be thoroughly investigated in seeking to find its cause, Sgt Bahamonde said. It is unclear how long the probe will last, he said.

The investigation will include vehicle inspections, as well as interviews with any witnesses to the incident, he said.

“We’re going to turn over every stone” in seeking the cause of the accident, he said. “It’s still very early,” he added.

Several police officers are working on the case, with Officer Jeff Silver listed as the investigator of record. Police ask anyone who witnessed the accident to contact Officer Silver at the police station at 3 Main Street, telephone 203-426-5841.

The January 14 accident on Hawleyville Road was the first fatal motor vehicle accident that town police have investigated since the night of Easter Sunday in April 2006, when a Danbury woman died after a one-car collision on nearby Mt Pleasant Road.