Westfield police officers Daniel Gustafson, Allen Magdycz, Michael Gamache and Seth Florek assist a representative of the medical examiner’s office as he inspects the body of a three-year-old girl who was killed in a two-car crash on Notre Dame St. on June 23, 2010. (File photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
WESTFIELD – A city woman whose lapse of attention almost two years ago cost the life of a three-year-old girl has been sentenced in Westfield District Court.
City police responded on June 23, 2010, to a report of a two vehicle crash on Notre Dame Street and found the girl had been thrown from her mother’s vehicle after a ‘T-bone’ crash which sent the 2003 Honda Odyssey her mother had been driving into a roll. The mini-van rolled completely over and came to rest on its wheels facing in the direction opposite to the direction it had been traveling.
The girl was found on the pavement in front of the vehicle having suffered fatal injuries.
The responding police found that an Elizabeth Avenue resident, Darlene Lloyd, 54, had failed to stop for a ‘stop’ sign at the intersection of Dartmouth Street and Notre Dame Street and her 2006 Hyundai Tucson had struck the Honda as it passed.
The operator of the Honda and her surviving daughter were transported to Noble Hospital where they were each treated and released.
In a statement to police soon after the accident, Lloyd said “I couldn’t believe that there was a stop sign there because I just assumed that it was straight away all the way to the end.”
A parallel street which the woman was apparently more used to using, Moseley Avenue, does not cross Notre Dame Street but ends when it reaches the cross street.
Lloyd was charged by Officer Michael Gamache of the Westfield Police Traffic Bureau with motor vehicle homicide and a stop sign violation.
Lloyd appeared before Judge Philip A. Contant on March 16, 2012, and pleaded guilty the homicide charge.
Contant placed her on probation for three years and ordered her to pay a $3,000 fine and a $750 surfine. She was also assessed $50.
Contant also ordered her to write a letter of apology to the victim’s family and to perform community service work for 40 hours at Western Massachusetts Hospital or a comparable facility.
The law directs the Registry of Motor Vehicles to revoke Lloyd’s license to drive for 15 years and Contant reinforced the prohibition when he ordered her not to operate a motor vehicle “for any reason” until she again has a valid license.
