‘Intoxicated wrong-way driver’ kills man, grandson in Christmas night crash in Somerset, officials say

27/12/2023

“This is a terrible tragedy, especially when it occurred on Christmas night,” District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III said in a statement emailed to the Globe. “My heart grieves for the victims and their family for their terrible loss.”

Gauthier remained hospitalized under State Police guard with non-life-threatening injuries on Tuesday, State Police said in a statement [1].

He was ordered held in lieu of £100,000 cash bail during an arraignment held at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford on Tuesday afternoon, according to Quinn’s office.

Gauthier is due in Fall River District Court on Jan.

9. His attorney declined to comment on the case.

About 11 p.m. Monday, troopers responded to a report of a crash on the westbound side of the bridge, which carries Route 6 over the Taunton River, State Police and prosecutors said.

A preliminary investigation suggests that a 2023 Land Rover SUV with New York plates was headed east on the westbound side of the bridge when it hit a westbound 2014 Infiniti QX60 SUV head-on and then struck a westbound 2019 Honda Accord, according to officials.

The Land Rover’s driver, identified as Gauthier, and five occupants of the other vehicles were taken to area hospitals, officials said.

The Seekonk man who had been driving the Infiniti, 73-year-old Floriano Arruda, was pronounced dead at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence on Tuesday morning, hours after his 15-year-old grandson, Jacoby Arruda, was pronounced dead at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River late Monday night, prosecutors said.

Donna Arruda, the 68-year-old wife of Floriano Arruda, remained in critical condition at Rhode Island Hospital on Tuesday, according to the district attorney’s office.

Two young women from Taunton who were in the Honda suffered minor injuries and were treated at Charlton Memorial Hospital, according to officials, who did not release the women’s names.

A police report filed in Fall River District Court shows that a trooper arrived at the crash scene to find two vehicles stationary in the left westbound lane and two male victims being treated by EMS personnel.

Meanwhile, Gauthier leaned against his vehicle, which was facing east on the westbound side of the highway resting on the median barrier, according to the report.

The trooper moved Gauthier away from the scene to take his statement on the crash, the report said.

Gauthier allegedly told the trooper “he did not know” what had happened and said he had entered the highway going the wrong way by using the Route 6 west offramp to Route 138, and he had been trying to get over the median barrier and onto the eastbound side, according to the report.

“During my first conversation with Gauthier I was able to observe that Gauthier had extremely red and glassy eyes, he also had a smell of an alcoholic beverage emanating from his mouth the more he spoke,” the trooper wrote. “Based on my observations I had Gauthier follow me to my cruiser away from the crash scene to perform Field Sobriety Test[s].”

Gauthier allegedly told the trooper he had drunk “a couple glasses of wine” at a family gathering in Somerset, according to the police report.

Gauthier then allegedly struggled to complete the sobriety tests as instructed, exhibiting repetitive, uncontrolled eye movements during one examination and repeatedly falling out of the correct position while being asked to walk and turn, the police report said.

During the walking test, “Gauthier lost his balance and fell onto his back,” the trooper wrote. “I helped Gauthier off the ground and he stated that he hurt his leg in the process and was unable to complete the one leg stand portion” of the sobriety test.

Gauthier then allegedly struggled to recite the alphabet, according to the report.

State Police took Gauthier to the Dartmouth barracks for booking and then to the Ash Street Jail in New Bedford, where he complained of leg pain and was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital, according to the report.

State Police and Bristol County prosecutors are continuing to investigate the crash.

John R. Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Jeremy C.

Fox can be reached at [email protected][2].

Follow him @jeremycfox [3].

References

^ a statement (www.mspnews.org)
^ [email protected] (www.bostonglobe.com)
^ @jeremycfox (www.twitter.com)