Crime & Safety

Probe of Fatal Crash Turns Up No Vehicle Defects

The DMV found no mechanical flaws in the car Darien's Whitney Smith was driving last month when she was killed in an accident.

An inspection of the vehicle that Darien's Whitney Smith was driving when it crashed through two houses on Hollow Tree Ridge Road last month has revealed no obvious mechanical causes for the accident, according to Darien Police Sgt. Jeremiah Marron.

The examination, conducted by the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles, showed nothing in Smith's 2009 BMW 328i that "seemed out of place or was indicative of not operating properly," Marron said Friday.

, died in the early morning hours of July 11 after her vehicle struck an embankment, went airborne, and crashed through two houses at 126 and 122 Hollow Tree Ridge Rd. The wreckage was so extensive that the first officers on the scene believed a plane might have crashed at the site.

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"There was just so much damage to the car the at certain things were not able to be meaured or determined," Marron said, but the DMV "didn't think there was any missing link to their inspection by any means."

BMW is conducting a separate inspection of the vehicle's electronic components, which Marron said may require shipping some pieces to Munich, Germany.

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Smith's family has also retained the services of Wright Group, Inc. to study the remnants of the car, which will be turned over to the firm next week.

No cause has been determined the accident, though excessive speed is believed to have been a factor. Police are still awaiting a report and toxicology results from Connecticut's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

"We are learning what didn't happen and working backwards with this," Marron said. "There's questions we may never get the answers to."

Moments before the incident, Smith had left her home off of Hollow Tree Ridge Rd., roughly half a mile north and significantly uphill from the area of the crash. She was found by responders wearing her seatbelt.

No witnesses to the collision have identified themselves to police, but investigators are reviewing other accounts.

"There are people that have come forward with certain information regarding the events in and around the time of that collision," Marron said. He declined to specify further.

Marron noted that the length of the investigation was typical for accidents of this nature.

"It's our job and we want to make sure we get it right the first time," he said. "We want to make sure it wasn't a couple of things first."


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