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This story was updated at 4:08 p.m. Friday:
NORWALK, Conn. — A motorcyclist died after a collision with a car on Main Avenue in Norwalk on Thursday afternoon, according to Sgt. James Boff. He was identified as Michael Miller, 29, of Glenndenning Street.
Both the motorcyclist and the driver of the car, an 18-year-old Wilton woman, were taken to Norwalk Hospital after the collision at about 3:30 p.m. in the area of 632 Main Ave., according to firefighters on the scene. Boff said Miller was pronounced dead at the hospital.
A Greenwich police officer was applying CPR to Miller when firefighters arrived, Boff said. He was lying in the road, and his helmet was several feet away. Police seized the red helmet as evidence.
The driver of the car, a 2008 Subaru, had been traveling south on Main Avenue when she decided to turn around by going into the Town Fair Tire parking lot, Boff said. She saw the motorcyclist heading north. As she turned into the parking lot, he hit her car. The motorcycle, a 2007 Kawasaki, sustained heavy front end damage, Boff said. The Subaru had heavy damage to the rear passenger side and the back windshield was smashed.
Police are investigating. Traffic was backed up on Route 7 after the accident.
Miller previously lived on Grove Street in Darien, according to Intelius.com.
Comments (11)
Ken P
You make a lot of good points. I think the problem is that the City is facing staggering wage and pension obligations for current and retired municipal employees, and rather than make any cuts, the strategy is to try and grow tax revenue with development because cutting spending is politically untenable. Any attempts to save money get shot down by a vocal minority who don't want their ox gored, with the situation cynically exploited for political gain. The recent circus surrounding outsourcing of garbage is just one example.
In the meantime the City continues to pay garbage truck drivers $66,000/year plus $30,000 in benefits, municipal employees get contracts with guaranteed raises and generous pensions, and so to pay for it all the only option is the path of least resistance - more development.
Ken P Jr:
You say well thought out now thats funny as they are and will continue be holes in the ground...I guess in that regard you are correct as holes in the ground dont create much traffic. Also I can and will continue to blame the Moccia administration for inaction such as this location of Route 7 which has been the location of many many accidents once again inaction by this administration.
Actually Tim, while I dont like the developments on West Ave & feel the areas could be put to better use than redevelopment into retail/commercial fund raising projects, they are well thought out & adress traffic issues. The area where this accident happened has been the same for many years. Hard to blame Moccia for things decades old.
Davidmarcus,
I respectfully dissagree & think Norwalk is developed enough right now. Smart development should I think have a goal or end in sight. Most of the current development has little chance of creating a better city for those of us who already live here. I doubt many residents of Norwalk will be useing the tourist attraction type retail planned for West Avenue. But ALL of us would use it if it was developed as an open space venue for the things the city dumps on East Norwalk, which negatively effect our quality of life. We done need more taxpayers or retail or hotels etc. We need things for the people of the city. East Norwalk is the oldest part of the city. Our roads were never designed to carry the traffic we see all year, let alone in the summer months when most of us would love to be able to enjoy our parks. The entire city would benefit if we turned the empty dormant area south of 95 into ball fields & open space for cultural events. The logistics are much better with easy on/off of 95, 15 & RT7 and its not a residential area. Right now we have Soccer, Lacrosse & baseball all in Vets park which has nowhere near enough parking for those activities let alone room for the sports plus the residents who might like to use what has always been a neighborhood park. The beach too is hard for the residents to enjoy once softball starts rolling and the city starts renting it to everybody with an idea & a checkbook. Its a disgrace IMO & I'd like to see an ordinance passed that forbids the city from useing any city parks as money making venues. If we want to do that we should build a venue for it & not in a developed residential area.
West ave is perfect in many ways. Its also very close to the water so they could even do the kayak events there if we connected that parcel to Oyster bend somehow. Its a shame that a City named after a river has developed every decent chunk of land along that river with no thought to public access beyond meaningless gestures like the riverside boardwalk that will never be completed. I think right now "smart development" would be developing things FOR the taxpayers to enjoy & things improving our quality of life. More people, retail & commercial development hurt our quality of life much more than they improve it.
davidmarcus
You are correct. However with Moccia in office we will continue to see his developer buddies destroy Norwalk with no concern for traffic or anything other than the dollar. We have seen more destruction of Norwalk during the Moccia administration than any other time in history of Norwalk other than when the British burned Norwalk to the ground.
I'm a little confused, if she was driving south & saw the bike driving north why on earth did she turn in front of it? It is a busy section of road true but thats kind of irrelevant if she saw him coming. This is just one reason I'd like to see us as a city stop aggressively trying to grow population & development wise. We have plenty of everything & would be better served trying to spend rationally instead of doing everything possible to get more money coming in. Growth is good to an extent, until you get too fat & I think we are pretty fat already.
I agree with you Ken. She saw the motorcycle, but still she cut him off, is the way I read this. Sad thing is, I see it all too often, people cutting off cars and motorcycles. Cutting a car off is bad enough, but a motorcycle? That's stupidity in my opinion.
R.I.P. to the motorcyclist and prayers to his family :(
I would rather say, this is why we need smart growth. Sprawling strip mall developments like Main Ave not only create dangerous streets but they take away from the appeal of Norwalk as a whole. On the other hand, beautiful, pedestrian-oriented streets with outdoor cafes and river views would be great additions to our town.
As a motorcyclist myself, this picture is painful to look at. I hope that both the rider and the driver of the car will be ok. Huge kudos to the passersby doing CPR on the guy. Reminds me that I need to get re-certified. You just never know when you're going to need to use it.
Oh God, I just posted this 20 minutes ago and they send an update that he died. My heartfelt condolences to his family and friends....
That rte 7 tavern / town fiar tire area has always been a rough stretch of road,..to many entrance / exits from all the strip mall type stores.
I agree. That area reminds me of Texas where there are few limits on development and from the moment you leave the airport it's nothing but strip malls as far as the eye can see.