DRIVER COULD BE CHARGED
Pats rookie visits wife in hospital as cops review crash
Foxboro police are weighing charges against the driver who triggered a violent, three-car collision last week when he rear-ended a New England Patriots rookie linebacker and his wife as they were stopped at a red light.
Chief William Baker said his department is hoping by the end of this week to have the results of an accident reconstruction performed by Walpole police before they decide with the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office whether to charge a 25-year-old Millis driver in connection with Friday’s crash.
The accident sent five people, including Harvey and his wife, Cassidy Langi, to the hospital, police said.
Depending on those results, Baker said, the driver could face charges such as reckless operation of a vehicle, driving to endanger, speeding or distracted driving.
Langi, 25, and his wife were in a 2011 Mazda that was stopped at a red light in the left-turn lane on Commercial Street at Fisher Street at 9:19 p.m. when the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee the Millis man was driving rear-ended them, pinning them between the Jeep and the 2007 Toyota in front of them, police said.
“We’re trying to determine why he didn’t stop,” Baker said of the Jeep’s driver, whose name the Herald is withholding because he has not yet been charged. “One might conclude he should have been in the through lane . ... It appears there had to be an element of distraction. Clearly, the drivers of the two cars that were struck from behind are not at fault.”
The Jeep’s driver was uninjured, Baker said. But five people from two of the cars were taken to area hospitals, Detective Ken Fitzgerald said.
Langi was discharged from Rhode Island Hospital Saturday, a hospital spokesman said. But his wife remains hospitalized, Baker said.
In a statement, the Patriots said the team’s “thoughts are with Harvey, the Langi family and those who sustained injuries.”
Foxboro firefighters responding to the crash said they found “a three-car, rearend collision with serious damage and entrapment” that required first responders to use the Jaws of Life to free a trapped victim.
Photos shared by the Foxboro Fire Department Friday night showed investigators looking over a black SUV with its front end crushed into the back of a totaled dark-colored sedan. Both vehicles had their air bags deployed.
Langi, a rookie from Brigham Young University, signed with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent after this year’s NFL draft.
Cassidy Langi posted a video clip to Instagram this week showing her husband coming to visit her hospital room. He came in on crutches, and she reflected on the crash.
“I completely blacked out and don’t remember anything, while Harvey remembers seeing me, his wife, laying lifeless and gushing blood,” Cassidy Langi wrote. “We are so completely blessed to have each other to lean on through all of this craziness.”