State police charge CT man in fiery fatal crash on Gold Star Memorial Bridge
State police have arrested a New London man in connection with a fiery rollover crash on the Gold Star Memorial Bridge in Groton last April that killed the driver of an oil tanker.
Reginald Collins, 59, turned himself in Wednesday at the Troop E barracks on charges of negligent homicide with a motor vehicle, improperly parking on a highway, operating an unregistered motor vehicle and operating without insurance, according to Connecticut State Police.
He was initially held on $25,000 bond and was arraigned the same day in New London Superior Court. A judge freed Collins on a promise to appear and continued the case until June 4, according to court records. He did not enter a plea during the hearing, records show.
Fatal crash sparks fire on major Connecticut highway bridge
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Collins told investigators that he bought used tires for his Toyota Avalon on April 21, 2023, around 10 a.m. and that, at the time of the crash around 11:20 a.m., was testing them. With a passenger in the vehicle, Collins said he was driving on Interstate 95 South on the bridge when the “steering felt funny and the car began to jump,” the warrant affidavit said.
He said he moved across multiple lanes before he felt the tire “let go,” at which point he stopped in what state police described as the right acceleration lane on the bridge, according to the warrant affidavit. Collins and his passenger, both of whom suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the crash, got out of the Toyota and found that the tire was “shredded,” Collins told police.
Shortly after the two got back into the car, the vehicle was struck by a 2001 Kenworth T300 oil tanker being driven by 42-year-old Wallace Fauquet III of Ledyard, according to state police. The tanker rolled over and caught fire on the bridge.
Fauquet was killed in the crash.
Connecticut names truck driver killed in fiery bridge crash
According to the warrant affidavit, an investigation found that Collins’ vehicle was not insured and its registration was suspended. Troopers allege that, despite the tire blowout, the car was capable of being driven and that Collins should have stopped in the shoulder instead of the right lane of I-95.
“Based on the investigation of the crash, it was found that the cause of this crash was that the operator of the Toyota Avalon created a traffic hazard by remaining stationary within the right acceleration lane and failing to move the vehicle out of the travel lane to a safe location,” investigators wrote in the warrant affidavit.
According to the warrant affidavit, state police could not determine if the tanker truck had any kind of mechanical issue because of its “complete destruction.”
State police said they found that Fauquet did not have the proper endorsement to be transporting hazardous materials, the warrant affidavit said. Officials previously said the truck was carrying about 2,200 gallons of home heating oil, some of which ended up in the Thames River.
However, troopers said they believe the lack of a hazardous materials endorsement “does not negate the role that Collins had in failing to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk by stopping” his vehicle in the right lane of I-95, the warrant affidavit said.
According to an obituary, Fauquet left behind four children and his wife, who was described as “his soulmate and the center of his universe.”
He grew up attending school in Ledyard and was “passionate and proud” about obtaining his CDL and being a truck driver, the obituary said. Fauquet was employed by Anderson Oil in Ledyard for many years and, at the time of his death, was employed at McCarthy Oil in Quaker Hill, according to the obituary.
He enjoyed a number of activities with his family including boating, fishing and “anything water related,” the obituary states. He also enjoyed playing basketball with his son and was teaching his daughter to drive.
A GoFundMe created in the wake of Fauquet’s death raised nearly $200,000.
