Car Strikes Conn. Festival Crowd; 27 Hurt
By SUSAN HAIGH, Associated Press Writer


NEW LONDON, Conn. - An 89-year-old man driving through a crowd at a summer
festival panicked after striking one pedestrian and lurched his station
wagon through the throng, injuring 27 people, city officials said.

Two people had serious injuries, Mayor Elizabeth Sabilia said. The rest were
non-life-threatening injuries.

The driver, Robert Laine, of Wallingford, and a female passenger were not
injured.

The accident happened about 3:30 p.m. near the Amtrak station during the
city's Sailfest summer festival, where a crowd had gathered on both sides of
warning gates as a train passed. Once the train departed and the gates
lifted, the pedestrians and the Chevrolet Caprice wagon both began to cross.

Sabilia said Laine was driving across the tracks to get to the Fishers
Island ferry when his car struck a pedestrian.

"He panicked," she said.

The car then lurched through the crowd, which witnesses said was about four-
or five-people deep.

"People were facing the tracks and didn't see the car coming," witness Bill
Hoezel told The Day of New London. "The car was moving probably 10 to 15
miles per hour, much quicker than someone trying to edge through a crowd.
There was no warning and no screaming, just thump-thump-thump as the bodies
were hit."

The victims were taken to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital. Most sustained cuts
and bruises and were treated and released, a hospital spokesman said. The
identities of the two seriously injured were not released.

Terrie Castagna, 43, a former paramedic, helped with first aid until
emergency crews arrived. She said Laine told her the gas pedal in his car
was stuck.

"He was shaken. He was in shock," she said.

Police said it was premature to point to a cause and were still interviewing
witnesses and many of those struck. Investigators will also look at any
video that may have been captured by surveillance cameras used by Amtrak and
the Fishers Island ferry.

"It was a very chaotic scene," police Capt. Kenneth Edwards said. "There
were luckily a large number of emergency personnel in the area."

The waterfront city's Sailfest festival attracts thousands of visitors.