Connecticut police have identified the driver involved in a deadly wrong-way crash on Merritt Parkway last week as a 21-year-old Fairfield University student.
Alexander Dennis was driving home to Massachusetts after completing his junior year, when the accident occurred, according to the university.
Police said his Honda CRV was heading north in the southbound lane of the parkway, also known as Route 15, when it collided head-on with a minivan.
The driver of the minivan, 55-year-old Steven Rowland, and two passengers in the vehicle, 80-year-old Thomas Lucian Vitale and 81-year-old Olga Vitale, were pronounced dead at the scene, authorities added.
Dennis also died, though police originally said they were unable to identify the driver of the Honda CRV due to the extent of his injuries.
When the accident occurred, around 1:30 a.m., the car Dennis was driving reportedly burst into flames. The highway was closed for nearly seven hours before reopening around 8:30 a.m.
No details have yet been released on how Dennis came to be driving in the wrong direction of the highway.
“Alex had just completed his junior year here on campus and was traveling home to Massachusetts for the summer when the car accident occurred,” Fairfield University said in a statement. “As a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, Alex was a visual and performing arts major with a special interest in film.”
