Fairfield driver charged with hitting pedestrian

FAIRFIELD — A Fairfield man has been charged with striking an Operation Hope volunteer coordinator with his vehicle as she walked in a crosswalk, police said.

Fairfi el d poli ce Lt. Antonio Granata said Richard Zogheb, 57, was arrested and charged with f ai lure to grant the right of way to a pedestrian within a marked crosswalk and seconddegree assault of an elderly person after he allegedly hit Donna Schmidt, 65, on Nov. 20.

That evening, Granata said, police responded to a cal l for a motor vehicl e striking a pedestrian in the crosswalk in front of 636 Old Post Road. Officers determined that Zogheb was driving westbound on the Old Post Road and struck Schmidt while she was in the crosswalk. Zogheb stayed at the scene following the crash.

“Schmidt was struck with the front end of Zogheb’s SUV,” Granata said. “Schmidt was found lying on her back in the roadway of Old Post Road when first responders arrived and was transported to St. Vincent’s Medical Center with serious physical injuries .”

Gran at as aidan investigation was conducted by the Fairfield Police Crash Reconstruction Unit, a group within the department whose investigations discover a seri es of f actors that may indicate the cause of a crash.

“Investigators are trained to determine speed of a traveling vehicl e, if an operator is driving impaired and forensic vehicle and phone analysis to determine if an operator is driving distracted,” he said. “They collect al l physical evidence at the scene, inter view witnesses, scour neighborhoods for video, take photographs and capture 3D measurement and imaging utilizing r eal i zati on technolog y for evidentiar y and memorialization purposes.”

Granata said the i nvestigation revealed that Zogheb had a cl ear l i ne of sight and should have seen a person in the crosswalk but for some unknown reason did not. As a result, Granata said, he caused serious physical injur y to the pedestrian who was considered elderly by statute because of her age.

“She is st i l l r ecovering from her i nj uries, ” he said. “Investigators do not have any reason to believe that speed was a f actor in t his case. ”

Granata l at er sai d Schmidt has been released from the hospital but has a long road to recover y.

Granata said a Superior Court arrest warrant was issued for Zogheb on Dec. 21. He said Zogheb cooperated with the investigation and turned himself in at Fairfield Police Headquarters the next day.

Zogheb’s arraignment is scheduled f or Ja n. 19, according to court documents.