Greenwich Woman Critically Injured in Crash

Right on North Street, by St. Mary's Cemetary and Sam Bridge Nursery..
How the hell would anyone surive that??

An elderly Greenwich woman was badly injured when the car she was driving slammed into an oncoming dump truck on North Street, closing a stretch between Clapboard Ridge and Doubling roads for several hours Monday afternoon, police said.

The woman, who was not identified, was taken to Greenwich Hospital in critical condition, police said.

The woman was driving a Lexus sedan south on North Street about 12:30 p.m. when she struck a 10-wheel dump truck coming in the opposite direction near Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, 437 North St., according to police. The impact of the crash trapped and severely injured the Lexus driver.

She was later freed by members of the Greenwich Fire Department, who turned over her care to Greenwich Emergency Medical Services, police said. The woman was given advanced life support -- a set of methods to help circulation and breathing -- while being transported to Greenwich Hospital, where she was taken to the emergency room.

Greenwich police had no update on the woman's condition as of early evening Monday. Information on patients' condition cannot be obtained from the hospital without names.

The driver of the dump truck, who was not injured, was working for Norwalk-based C&C Landscaping & Paving. A company representative could not be reached for comment Monday evening.

As the twisted wreckage of the Lexus and the dump truck lay strewn across North Street, members of the Greenwich Police Department's accident reconstruction team took photographs and made measurements Monday afternoon. The Lexus took the brunt of the collision, its front end crumpled and flattened. The dump truck's lower front end also sustained heavy damage.

North Street, which was shut down most of the afternoon as investigators worked at the scene, was opened around 4:30 p.m.

The accident affected school bus service from nearby North Street School, which is south of where the crash occurred, according to the school district. Some school bus service was canceled.

North Street School Principal Charles Smith said school officials sent out a message through the ParentLink system early in the afternoon, notifying parents of the accident.

"Dismissal had to be changed a little bit," he said.

Bus No. 1, which typically runs north on North Street, had to be rerouted, Smith said.

"Parents who normally drive south on North Street couldn't come down," he said.

Most of the school's students take buses to the school or are dropped off by their parents because North Street provides limited walking access, Smith said.

Despite the accident, Smith said dismissal ran smoothly.

A concern for Smith and others is drivers' speed on North Street, one of the town's main north-south thoroughfares, running from central Greenwich near Route 1 all the way into New York state.

"People do drive very fast on North Street," Smith said.