A 60-year-old East Windsor man is facing a slate of criminal charges after a motorcycle crash on Route 2 in East Hartford left him and a passenger injured, with authorities offering conflicting accounts of just how serious those injuries were. Edwin Rivera was taken into custody after officers responded to the single-vehicle crash, which happened near the Interstate 84 West interchange.
State police said the motorcycle went down on Route 2 East near Exit 1A by the I-84 West interchange, according to wtnh.com. According to CT Insider, the crash happened at around 4:26 p.m. on Oct. 14 in the eastbound highway lanes, while wtnh.com placed the timing at approximately 4:30 p.m. the same day. CT Insider reported that witnesses told investigators the motorcycle had been cutting in and out of traffic at high speed before Rivera lost control and struck a metal beam guardrail in the median.
Rivera and a 58-year-old female passenger were both ejected in the crash, per the CT Insider account. The two outlets diverged sharply on the severity of the passenger's condition: CT Insider reported her injuries were not life-threatening, while state police, per wtnh.com, suspected she had sustained life-threatening injuries. The station separately reported that the passenger was transported to Hartford Hospital.
Signs of Impairment at the Scene
Police said Rivera exhibited signs of impairment at the crash site and was unable to perform a standardized field sobriety test to standard, according to the same CT Insider report. He was charged with driving under the influence, failure to maintain a lane, reckless endangerment, interfering with police, and possession of a controlled substance. He was released on a $50,000 non-surety bond and is scheduled to be arraigned in state Superior Court in Manchester on Oct. 26.
A Deadly Year for Connecticut Riders
A Deadly Year for Connecticut Riders More than 36 riders had died in Connecticut by July 2024, a UConn Transportation Safety Research Center expert told NBC Connecticut, and the state was on pace for a new high that year. Speeding and driving under the influence, by both motorcyclists and drivers of cars, were identified as contributing factors, and distracted driving alone had contributed to 1,909 motorcycle crashes in the state in 2024, according to the UConn Crash Data Repository cited in the same report.
A UConn researcher also pointed to a mild winter that brought riders onto the roads earlier than usual as a possible factor in the 2024 uptick, per NBC Connecticut's reporting. Nationally, motorcyclist fatalities have hit record highs for three consecutive years of available data, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and motorcyclists accounted for 19% of all Connecticut traffic fatalities in 2022, per National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data cited by the station.
Connecticut's High National Ranking
Connecticut ranks eighth nationally for preventable motorcycle fatalities, sitting 63% above the national average, according to a separate wtnh.com report. The state sees about 65 motorcycle deaths per 100,000 registered motorcycles, and impaired riding accounts for 43.9% of its preventable motorcycle fatalities, the highest share among the top 10 states, the report found. That analysis examined crash data from 2020 through 2024.
