Police: Driver Who Caused Four-Vehicle Accident Going 2X Speed Limit

The New Canaan driver who caused the four-vehicle accident last October on Silvermine Road, sending a teenage driver to the hospital unconscious, was speeding at about twice the 30 mph speed limit just before the incident, New Canaan police say.

Carol Sung, 51, of 136 Harrison Ave., didn’t apply her brakes before the accident, which started when she hit a vehicle in front of her 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe SUV, police said. That vehicle was pushed into oncoming traffic from the other direction and hit one vehicle and then another, according to police.

Sung was charged Thursday with reckless driving, a misdemeanor. The event data recorder for Sung’s vehicle showed the high rate of speed and also showed that Sung didn’t brake before hitting a 2013 BMW in front of her, police said. They obtained the information through a search warrant, then applied for and received an arrest warrant for Sung.

The accident sent a Stamford teenager, Michael Bivona Jr., then 18 years old and now 19, to Norwalk Hospital unconscious. The young man was later transferred to Yale-New Haven hospital for further treatment of his injuries and by Nov. 19 had been released from the hospital and was recuperating, police said. The Norwalk man who was driving the BMW in front of Sung’s SUV was also taken to Norwalk Hospital.

In January, Bivona met with firefighters at a public meeting to thank them for their actions in responding to the scene and getting him to the hospital, as the New Canaanite reported. Bivona was one of two drivers firefighters needed to extricate from vehicles, which was complicated in Bivona’s case because he was pinned inside the crushed car, the news website reported, citing Fire Commission Chairman Jack Horner.

Bivona suffered torn ligaments in his ankles, a broken femur, seven broken ribs, a broken collarbone, a broken elbow, stretched ligaments in his neck, a lacerated liver, damaged spleen and a punctured lung, the New Canaanite reported.

Police gave this account (an accusation not proven in court) of how the accident happened:

Sung, in her SUV, was driving westbound on Silvermine Road behind the BMW, driven by a 50-year-old Norwalk man. Just before 5:34 p.m., her vehicle rear-ended the BMW just east of Silvermine Road’s intersection with Clapboard Hill Road.

The BMW was pushed into the left, into oncoming traffic coming east on the road. The vehicle hit a Subaru driven by Bivona, which spun around. The BMW then hit a 2011 Audi SUV, also going east, driven by a 41-year-old Wilton woman.

All four drivers were initially taken to Norwalk Hospital. There were no passengers in any of the vehicles.

Sung went to New Canaan Police Headquarters at 8:30 a.m. Thursday in response to being told they had a warrant for her arrest. She was released on a $500 bond and is scheduled to appear March 31 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.