LACONIA — The driver accused of causing a crash on Route 11 in Gilford last month which resulted in the death of a 20-year-old Massachusetts woman told police he crossed the yellow line into the path of the oncoming car in which the woman was riding, according to court records.
Richard Conrod, 47, of 64 Peter Court, in Belmont, was charged with negligent homicide soon after the Aug. 28 crash near Ellacoya State Park. The Belknap County Attorney’s Office has since charged Conrod with two additional counts of second-degree assault stemming from the serious injuries suffered by the car’s driver and another adult passenger.
Conrod has an arraignment scheduled for this afternoon in Belknap Superior Court.
According to authorities, Conrod’s westbound pickup truck crashed virtually head-on with an eastbound SVU. Tiana Lozzi, 20, of Lynn, Massachusetts, died from the injuries she suffered in the crash, according to the charging document. The driver, John Bonilla, 20, also of Lynn and also Lozzi’s fiance, was seriously injured, as well as a 47-year-old woman passenger identified in the charging document only by the initials A.M. Lozzi’s and Bonilla’s 1-year-old son, Jaxson, and a 3-year-old toddler suffered minor injuries.
Court records also allege that Conrod was visibly drunk, both at the scene of the accident and at the Lakes Region General Hospital emergency room, where he was treated for his injuries.
An affidavit in support of Conrod’s arrest for negligent homicide, written by Gilford Police Officer Lance Rouse, states the officer determined the pickup truck veered into the oncoming lane “... based on statements from witnesses and Conrod’s recollection of the collision in which he told me he crossed the yellow line.”
According to documents, Bonilla suffered a “dislocated knee and/or multiple lacerations to his leg, and passenger A.M. sustained multiple lacerations to her head.”
The affidavit also alleges that Conrod’s intoxication was readily apparent. Rouse stated that he conducted a field sobriety test on Conrod, “in which I observed 6 out of 6 clues of impairment.” The document also states that Conrod said he had consumed “two alcoholic beverages two hours prior” to the crash. In addition, the officer wrote that Conrod’s speech was slurred and that Rouse smelled “the odor of alcoholic beverage.” The affidavit further states that Rouse spent a long time with Conrod at the hospital and during that time “he continued to slur his words and I noticed the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath.”
(1) comment
Sad , but yet he admitted he was wrong.
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