An Alabama truck driver has been charged in connection with a crash involving a tractor-trailer and a motorcycle in South Windsor last September that killed a 24-year-old Simsbury man.
Alexander J. Harb, 61, turned himself in to be charged on a warrant with negligent homicide with a motor vehicle and failure to grant the right of way to oncoming traffic, according to the South Windsor Police Department. He is free without having to post bail and was granted a continuance during a hearing Monday in Manchester Superior Court. He is next due in court on June 26.
The charges stem from an accident on Sept. 30, 2022, at about 3:20 a.m., at the intersection of Route 194 and Rye Street in South Windsor, where police allege Harb, driving a tractor-trailer, turned left onto Rye in front of Nathan Eberly, killing him, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
Eberly — a 2016 graduate of Simsbury High School who attended Central Connecticut State University — was heading west on Route 194 on a 1979 Yamaha motorcycle when he was struck by the tractor-trailer driven by Harb, who police said failed to grant the right of way to the 24-year-old, according to the warrant. Eberly was leaving his job at the FedEx on Kennedy Road in South Windsor and was headed to his home in Simsbury, police wrote.
Harb pulled into a gas station following the collision. Responding officers found Eberly, who was wearing a helmet, “displaying agonal breaths,” with injuries and no pulse, the affidavit said. He was treated on scene by a paramedic who pronounced him dead at about 3:52 a.m., the affidavit said.
Officers on the scene said Harb showed no signs of alcohol or drug use, according to the affidavit. Dashcam footage from inside the tractor-trailer — which had one camera pointed at Harb and the other toward the road — showed him look down briefly when his GPS system instructed him to make a left and then out toward the windshield before looking left, presumably toward Rye Street, police wrote in the warrant. He then started to make a left turn before looking back out the windshield “with a surprised look,” saying “Oh (expletive),” the affidavit said. Harb can also be heard saying “Oh God, lord,” following the sound of a collision.
According to the warrant, Eberly had a cell phone mounted to the handlebars of his motorcycle with a navigation app active. Officers inspected the phone and found no signs that he was using the device for any purposes beyond the navigation app, the affidavit said.
An autopsy performed on Eberly showed he died of “blunt impact injury of head, neck and torso,” the affidavit said. His death was ruled an accident.
The autopsy also showed Eberly had THC — the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana — and amphetamines in his system, according to the affidavit. Dr. Jessica Gleba, assistant director with the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, Division of Scientific Services, told police the level of THC found in his system “would not be a result of residual effects of the consumption of marijuana,” adding that the level would indicate the THC would be “psychoactive in the body,” police wrote in the affidavit.
Gleba also reportedly told police the level of amphetamines in Eberly’s system “is above what you would expect to see from a normal dose of Adderall,” according to the affidavit. An investigator noted in the affidavit that, based on information from Gleba, he believes Eberly was “under the influence of drugs” during the crash, “to include marijuana and amphetamines.”
Investigators also wrote in the affidavit that Eberly’s license had expired on March 5, 2020, and was suspended as of Sept. 23, 2021, for an operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs charge and suspended as of March 6, 2022, for a violation of failure to appear or pay a fine or fee, the affidavit said. Eberly, the affidavit continued, also had two operating under the influence violations — one in 2018 and another in 2020 — in his motor vehicle history.
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