State police have arrested a 22-year-old Bethel man in connection a crash in Willington that killed a Central Connecticut State University student last year.
He was going at least 40 miles per hour over the speed limit when he lost control of the car and the CCSU student was thrown from the vehicle, according to state police.
They said the crash happened around 10:12 p.m. on April 27 when the driver lost control on a curve while going south on River Road near Ademis Road, hit a mailbox and the Subaru Legacy he was driving rolled over.
A passenger in the back seat, 19-year-old Maria Cardosa DaMata, of Bethel, was not wearing a seatbelt, according to the arrest warrant, and she was thrown from the car and died the next day.
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The driver and three other passengers were out of the car when first responders arrived and they were taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
During the investigation, one of the passengers gave police a statement, saying that the driver was swerving in and out of cars and speeding. At one point, the passenger took a video and included the caption that they were in the driver’s car, “crying bc we might crash,” and sent it a friend before the vehicle rolled over, according to the warrant.
State police said they determined that the driver was going between 85 and 86 miles per hour in a 45-mile-per-hour zone when he lost control of the car.
They arrested the suspect him on Wednesday night.
He has been charged with manslaughter in the first degree, four counts of reckless endangerment, reckless driving and failure to maintain lane.
He was released on a $35,000 bond and will be arraigned at Rockville Superior Court on April 8.
