Victim of deadly hit-and-run crash was 81-year-old former Norwalk firefighter
Norwalk police arrested a Bridgeport driver who they say ran a red light and was on his phone when he hit a pedestrian and fled the scene. The 81-year-old victim was walking home at the time and died from his injuries.
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James Girardeau, of Norwalk, was 81 years old but walked everywhere, according to his niece. Girardeau was doing just that, heading home on Nov. 19, when he was hit by two cars, the first of which fled the scene, according to police.
It happened on Van Buren Avenue as Girardeau walked from Union Park Street to Bedford Avenue. This week, five months after he was killed, police made an arrest in Girardeau's death.
“He was in the crosswalk. He had the pedestrian signal, and all traffic lights were red,” said Lt. Ramon Tejada.
Girardeau should have been able to safely cross. But around 6:45 p.m., a car coming down Bedford Avenue didn’t stop for the red light and turned left onto Van Buren, knocking Girardeau to the ground, Tejada said.
“At no point did they stop and try to see if the pedestrian was okay, check on them or even call,” Tejada told News 12. “That driver did call the police approximately 45 minutes later. He was now two miles away from the scene of the accident, and reported he thought he hit something near one of the exits in Norwalk.”
Officers were already on scene. They’d been alerted by another driver who didn't see Girardeau on the ground in the dark and hit him, too, not long after, according to Tejada.
“The second vehicle immediately stopped, rendered aid and immediately called 911,” Tejada stated.
Girardeau was rushed to the hospital where he later died. Girardeau's niece told News 12 he was a Norwalk firefighter for many years, then a maintenance engineer at Norwalk Hospital. She said her uncle was adored and will be sorely missed.
On May 18, the driver of the first vehicle, 30-year-old Edwin Francisco-Bonilla, of Bridgeport, was taken into custody on several charges including misconduct with a motor vehicle, evading responsibility resulting in death and failure to obey a traffic signal.
“We had the dashboard footage from a nearby vehicle which showed the entire incident, showed the vehicle in question and provided all the information we needed,” Tejada explained.
Tejada said Franciso-Bonilla was a Lyft driver and had dropped someone off in the area right before. Investigators also determined he was on his phone at the time of the crash, per Tejada.
“People underestimate the risk of distracted driving. No phone call is that important. No text is that important to cost a life, which it did in this case,” Tejada said.
Franciso-Bonilla is being held on $100,000 bond. He was arraigned in Stamford Superior Court and is due back there June 1.
