State police arrest man suspected in fatal wrong-way crash on I-95 in Westbrook

State police have arrested a Groton man who is accused of driving the wrong way on Interstate 95 in Westbrook in October while he was intoxicated and causing a crash that killed another man.

Just after 8 p.m. on the night of Oct. 9, state police responded to a crash between exits 66 and 65 and they found 47-year-old Mark Palumbo Jr. unresponsive in a 2014 red Ford Mustang that was in the right shoulder, state police said.

Police determined that his vehicle had been hit head-on by the driver of a Cadillac that was going the wrong way, according to the arrest warrant that state police released on Tuesday.

The driver of the 2017 Cadillac, a 58-year-old Groton man, smelled of alcohol and told police that he was driving home from Essex after having dinner, where he had three mixed drinks containing vodka, according to the arrest warrant, and he also said he was taking cold medication.

The man was stumbling during field sobriety tests, according to state police.

They took him into custody and he refused to submit to drug influence evaluation and to provide a urine sample, according to the arrest warrant.   

The suspect sought medical treatment and was released.

State police said tests showed his blood alcohol content was .22 percent.

When state police spoke with Palumbo's family during the investigation into the crash, they told him that he had spent part of the day attending fall festivities for children, had lunch at home with his family, then went to work and would have been on his way home from work when he was struck, according to state police.

Palumbo was a part-owner of Madison Avenue Salon in Madison, where he was also a stylist. He was also a firefighter and owner of MAP Auto Detailing.

“He kind of had his hand in a few things but everything he did, he did it with passion,” Michael Brotz, Palumbo's brother-in-law, said after Palumbo's death.

As police spoke with witnesses, one reported seeing headlights coming from a vehicle heading the wrong way on I-95 South and then seeing the vehicle collide with another, according to the arrest warrant.

Another witness who was behind the Mustang also reported seeing a vehicle going the wrong way and the Mustang collide head-on.

The suspect turned himself in to police at 5 a.m. on Tuesday and has been charged in connection with the crash on Oct. 9.

He has been charged with driving the wrong way on a limited access highway, manslaughter in the second degree with a motor vehicle, misconduct with a motor vehicle and reckless endangerment in the first degree.

He was held on a $1 million bond and taken to Middletown Superior Court for arraignment.