Crime & Safety

Updated: State Police Investigate Fatal Accident on Route 83

Ellington man killed, residents of East Windsor and Coventry seriously injured in an early morning accident in Ellington.

Update, 11 p.m. 

A makeshift memorial had been erected by Sunday evening along Route 83 in Ellington at the scene of a fatal accident that claimed the life of the 20-year old driver and sent two passengers to Hartford Hospital by LifeStar helicopter. Friends and family members appear to have left flowers, tokens and written messages commemorating the life of Robert J. Dunn, a 20-year old Ellington resident, as a result of the early morning crash.  

Dunn lost control of the 1989 Ford Ranger he was driving and struck a tree along Somers Road (Route 83) near the intersection with Meadow Brook Road at approximately 2:11 a.m. Sunday morning, police and fire personnel said. Dunn was thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.

Find out what's happening in Ellington-Somerswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The vehicle's two passengers, Kassandra King, 17, of East Windsor, and James F. McDermott, a 22-year-old Coventry man, were flown by helicopter to Hartford Hospital, where staff said both their conditions remained critical at 11 p.m. Sunday evening. 

A Connecticut State Police Trooper, Joseph Strogoff, found the vehicle in flames while on his early morning patrol Sunday and rescued King and McDermott from the vehicle. 

Find out what's happening in Ellington-Somerswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Update, 5:30 p.m. 

According to Hartford Hospital staff, two passengers of an early morning crash in Ellington remained in critical condition Sunday afternoon after being flown by Life Star helicopter to the hospital early this morning.

Kassandra King, 17, of East Windsor, and James F. McDermott, a 22-year-old Coventry man, were listed in critical condition as of about 4:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, according to a hospital spokesman.

King and McDermott were passengers in a 1989 Ford Ranger driven by Robert J. Dunn that crashed into a tree along Route 83 at approximately 2:11 a.m., according to police and fire personnel. Dunn, a 20-year-old Ellington resident, was thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.

A Connecticut State Police trooper, Joseph Strogoff, found the vehicle in flames while he was out on his morning patrol of the area and pulled King and McDermott from the vehicle, according to State Police Sgt. Richard Cournoyer.

“He came upon what he thought was a car fire and then quickly realized that there were people inside,” Cournoyer said.

Cournoyer said Strogoff was a recent graduate of the state police academy and the newest patrol trooper assigned to the Troop C barracks in Tolland.

“He was in the right place at the right time,” Cournoyer said of Strogoff. 

Original Story

An Ellington man was killed and residents of East Windsor and Coventry were taken by LifeStar helicopter to a nearby hospital for serious injuries sustained in a fiery motor vehicle accident early Sunday, according to fire and police personnel.

Ellington fire and rescue personnel responded to the single car motor vehicle accident which involved a truck being on fire at 2:11 a.m. on Somers Road (Route 83) about 1,000 feet north of the Meadow Brook Road intersection, according to Ellington Fire Chief Michael Varney.

According to state police in Tolland, Robert J. Dunn, 20, of Crane Road in Ellington was driving his 1989 Ford Ranger south along Route 83 when the truck crossed into the northbound lane and then back to the southbound side of the road before striking a tree.

Dunn was thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and fire personnel.

Passengers Kassandra King, 17, of Rockville Road in the Broad Brook section of East Windsor, and James F. McDermott, 22, of Coventry, were treated by Ellington Ambulance personnel and a medic from Rockville Hospital before being flown by helicopter to Hartford Hospital for further treatment, according to police and fire personnel.

The Somers Fire Department secured a landing zone near the Ellington Industrial Park for the medical helicopters, while Ellington firefighters extinguished the truck fire, Varney said.

When they arrived, fire officials discovered that a trooper from the Troop C barracks in Tolland on patrol in the area had pulled two people from the burning vehicle prior to anyone's arrival, Varney said. 

State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance confirmed that at trooper had pulled King and McDermott from the vehicle, but he did not have any more information on the incident.

"It was a significant incident, and if it wasn't for the actions of the initial trooper on scene it would have been a worse outcome," Varney said.

Patch editors will update this story throughout the day.


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