Courtesy of Patrick Lawe

A small black Mazda car crashed into a fence at the intersection of Prospect St. and Trumbull St — feet away from the Malone Engineering Center and Pauli Murray College — on Wednesday afternoon. Yale and New Haven police officers as well as New Haven Fire Department officials responded to the incident. The accident is being investigated by the New Haven Police Department, according to Yale Police Assistant Chief Steven Woznyk.

Brian Lin ’21 was walking back from section at the Watson Center at around 4:20 p.m. when he noticed the crash. He saw two fire trucks parked on Prospect Street and officials attending to the scene.

“The angle and where the car ended up is kind of odd,” Lin told the News. The car crashed perpendicular to Prospect St. into a black fence, which lined the Malone Engineering Center.

The car had driven onto the sidewalk at the crosswalk intersecting with Trumbull St. and busted through the fence. The front portion of the car, including its front two tires, was hanging off the ledge that overlooks the walking path below.

“The scary thing was that if the car had moved a few feet more, it would have tipped into the [walkway below],” Lin said. He said that at the time he saw the crashed car — which he thinks was not too long after the incident — the situation “did not seem too dire” and that the officials seemed to have the incident under control. He added that many students and passersby were just filming the scene and then moving on.

He said that it did not seem like there were injuries, but that there was an ambulance on the scene. Lin said that the person he presumed to be the driver — the only person that seemed to be allowed on the scene that was not wearing a police of fire uniform — was standing next to the car and assessing the damage.

Lin said that officials quickly taped off the area, and closed down Prospect Street from the intersection next to Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall. By 5:20 p.m., the car was removed, and only a few police officers remained on the scene.

Woznyk told the News that the Yale Police Department responded to the incident and helped Yale Facilities assess the damage to the fencing.  

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Sammy Westfall | sammy.westfall@yale.edu