A 20-year-old Naugatuck man was killed and three others were injured in a crash in Seymour early Wednesday, police said.
The one-car crash was reported at 1:09 a.m. on South Main Street near Pearl Street.
Seymour Police Lt. Paul Satkowski issued a press release Wednesday afternoon identifying the Naugatuck man killed in the crash as Korey Jordan, of Anderson Street in Naugatuck.
Speed and alcohol were factors in the accident, he said.
Police officers arriving at the scene of the crash found a single car facing south in the northbound lane of the street with heavy damage and four men inside, the press release said.
Jordan, the front seat passenger, was unconscious and had to be cut from the car by Seymour firefighters using specialized tools. Jordan was taken to Waterbury Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Two passengers in the backseat, Joseph Staffier, 20, of Hawkins Street in Derby, and a 17-year-old not identified by police, were also injured in the crash and taken to area hospitals with “non-life-threatening” injuries, the press release said. They are in fair condition.
The press release said a preliminary investigation revealed the driver of the car, Manuel Esteves, 20, of Meadfarm Road in Seymour, was driving north on South Main Street and passed another car “at a high rate of speed” in the area of Balkos Service Station before failing to negotiate the curve in the road near its intersection with Pearl Street.
The car then struck a utility pole head-on just after the intersection, the press release said.
Estevez sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to Yale-New Haven Hospital.
“The accident remains under investigation by Seymour Police Department Accident Reconstruction personnel,” the press release concluded. “Speed and possible alcohol have been determined to be contributing factors to the accident. As of this time there are no criminal charges.”
At the scene Wednesday morning, police barricades blocked South Main Street to traffic from Pearl Street to Maple Street.
Sand and fluid absorbent covered much of the road near the intersection of South Main Street and Pearl Street.
Jon Livolsi, who lives on South Main Street near the site of the accident, said police were there investigating until about 7:30 a.m., when the car was towed from the scene.
He said it seemed speed was a factor in the accident.
“They had to be really zipping,” Livolsi said. “The nose of the car was pushed all the way to the firewall.”
“It was not a good scene,” said Livolsi, who has lived nearby since the 1960s. “That’s the first fatality we’ve ever seen here.”
