Officer's death was an accident

03/20/2007

Officer’s death was an accident

A New Haven Register Editorial

Driver who unintentionally struck Daniel Picagli was neither reckless nor negligent. Sometimes an accident is just an accident, an unintended event in which circumstances converge in a tragic way, where no clear responsibility can be fixed despite the understandable inclination to affix blame.

That is exactly what happened when a Ford Escape driven by John M. Walker Jr., 66, of Madison struck New Haven police Officer Daniel Picagli, 38, at a construction site on Chapel Street on the evening of Oct. 17, 2006. Picagli died four days later. A popular officer who worked with the city’s youth, his death caused an enormous outpouring of grief.

In trying to understand what happened, some public suspicion turned on Walker, a cousin of former President George H.W. Bush and until September the chief judge of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. The police refusal to release Walker’s name after the accident fed suspicions of a cover-up, as did the length of the accident investigation. On Thursday, State’s Attorney Michael Dearington released a report that found no arrest was warranted.

By other drivers’ accounts and an accident reconstruction, Walker was driving at about the speed limit of 25 mph. There was no indication that the judge was either impaired or driving erratically. It was a dark, rainy night. Light from street lamps was obscured by trees. The driver behind Walker reported he could not see clearly because of the rainy glare on his windshield. A driver who passed by the construction site shortly before the accident said that, because of the poor visibility, she did not see the officer directing traffic until within 5 feet of him.

Compounding the poor visibility, there were no traffic cones or construction signs at the site of the work. Picagli was wearing a fluorescent vest over his black raincoat. But, when Walker, momentarily distracted by the construction, struck Picagli, the officer was turned away from traffic, so the vest did not reflect light.

Accidents like this happen in broad daylight too. A month after Picagli was struck, another police officer was hit and dragged by a work truck at another construction site.

In February, the state Labor Department cited the Police Department with a "serious" violation for failing to instruct employees in safety at construction sites. The city has paid a $350 fine and promised to train all its police officers in work zone safety by June.

That may be of little consolation to those who mourn Picagli, but it may help other officers avoid similar accidents.