CSP: Litchfield woman ‘barely tapped’ brakes

TORRINGTON >> A Litchfield woman charged with second-degree manslaughter and driving under the influence after a fatal crash in October “barely tapped on the brakes” before colliding with several motorcycles, according to an arrest warrant affidavit written by a Connecticut State Police trooper.

Elizabeth Waterbury, 57, of Goshen Road, is also charged with failure to drive in proper lane, tampering with evidence, interfering with an officer and second- and third-degree assault after the October crash on Route 63, which killed a Harwinton woman, seriously injured four

others, and caused minor injuries to another person.

Waterbury, who was driving a Ford Escape, swerved into the southbound lane while traveling north on North Street on at approximately 1:30 p.m. Oct. 23, according to the warrant affidavit, striking several in a group of 18 motorcycles traveling in the other direction.

Based on an interview with a witness, police found that Waterbury allegedly had hidden full three bottles of wine, a hairclip, and a prescription bottle for lorazepam — a sedative — under some bushes on the shoulder of North Street after the accident, according to the warrant affidavit.

Surveillance camera footage from the Forman School depicting the accident showed that Waterbury “barely tapped on the brakes prior to impact” with the group of motorcycles, according to the warrant affidavit.

A man traveling in the group of motorcycles told police that he saw a silver SUV “completely in the southbound lane with both tires were over the yellow line” before the crash, while another said that he saw the SUV, which he described as tan, begin to drift into the southbound lane while the operator appeared to be “reaching down for something” without her eyes on the road, according to the warrant affidavit.

People who had met Waterbury earlier on Oct. 23 told police that she appeared to be intoxicated in some manner, according to the warrant affidavit.

One man told police that Waterbury “was swaying back and forth” as they had a conversation, according to the warrant affidavit.

This was unusual, the man said, as he had never seen Waterbury in such a state before. Waterbury told him that she had received a shingles shot recently “which made her feel unwell,” according to the warrant affidavit.

Waterbury told the man that she was on the way to a consignment shop, according to the warrant affidavit.

About an hour later, a woman told police that she “observed Elizabeth Waterbury stumble into the store at approximately 1145 hours (11:45 p.m.),” and that, as Waterbury moved through the store, “she stumbled numerous times and appeared disoriented,” the warrant affidavit says.

According to the recounting of a toxicology report in the affidavit, a sample of Waterbury’s blood was later found to have 0.09 ethanol by weight while another found 0.08 ethanol by weight. Lorazepam and Citalopram/Escitalopram — anti-depressants — were also found in Waterbury’s blood sample.

Lorazepam, according to the affidavit, impacts the ability to drive when taken with alcohol.

Waterbury was previously arrested in New York in 2007 and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, according to the affidavit, and by Connecticut State Police in 2013, for which she was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol/drugs. Online Judicial Branch records shows she received a suspended sentence and probation in the 2013 case.

Waterbury was arraigned at Superior Court in Bantam Monday, according to a court clerk, after she was arrested Friday.

Her bond was reduced from $1 million to $800,000, according to the clerk, and she is next due to appear in court March 14.