Icy roads cause multi-vehicle crash

KENT — An accident on slick, icy roads Sunday afternoon took a particularly nasty twist when a woman who stopped to help the driver of a car that had crashed in the ice was hit by a van that also slipped out of control.

At around 3 p.m., a 2004 Subaru Legacy owned by Litchfield Performing Arts landed on its driver’s side on the shoulder next to Route 341 (Segar Mountain Road), according to Connecticut State Police at the Troop L barracks in Litchfield. The car was on the westbound shoulder about a half mile west of Kent Hollow Road. The driver of the vehicle was not listed in the police report but a story in Monday’s Republican American newspaper said she was Vita Muir, 56, of Litchfield.

The driver was receiving medical care, according to the police report, when a van from the Marvelwood School in Kent came along in the westbound lane. It swerved and hit the Subaru, which had been on its side.

The impact knocked the Subaru back rightside up, police said, and it then slid across the road and hit Allison Jones, 56, of Rutland, Mass., who had apparently stopped her car and was walking over to see if she could help.

Jones was reportedly pinned under the car but was rescued by a group of people who had stopped at the accident site.

“By the time we got there,� said Kent Volunteer Fire Department Chief Eric Epstein, “four bystanders had lifted the car off the victim.�

Jones was transported by ambulance volunteers from the town of Warren to New Milford Hospital. Police reported at the time that she had broken some bones but had not suffered any life-threatening injuries.

The driver of the Marvelwood van was Paul Wagner, 63, a longtime teacher and soccer coach who was traveling with a student to an all-state soccer banquet.

Wagner said he was coming down the hill toward the accident site when he hit black ice and lost control of the vehicle.

He and the student, a 16-year-old boy from England, were taken to Sharon Hospital by volunteers from the Washington ambulance squad. They were treated and released. Marvelwood Headmaster Scott Pottbecker said the teacher and student are fine.

Conditions on local roads remained hazardous through Monday, even as temperatures rose to 50 degrees or higher. The combination of melting snow and heavy rain loosened soil and led to mudslides and to trees tipping and falling.

Of road conditions Sunday, Epstein said, “The road was treacherous, the worst I’ve ever seen it.�

The accident is under investigation.

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