Not guilty plea in cruiser crash case
Yesterday she was charged in Dorchester District Court with leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, operating under the influence, and other violations. Her lawyer, Jon Ciraulo, pleaded not guilty on her behalf.
The trooper was treated for minor injuries and released. He is one of 45 state troopers injured since Jan. 1, 2010, with about half of those incidents involving drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Last Wednesday, the head of the Massachusetts State Police made a public appeal for safe driving near troopers at work, a day after a trooper suffered serious leg injuries when a car hit him and took off in South Boston.
Authorities say that in the latest accident, at 12:10 a.m. Saturday, the trooper activated his lights to warn Dellabarba. She swerved right, hit the cruiser on the left front side, and drove over a traffic island. Police said she attempted to flee, but her vehicle, a red 1998 Nissan Maxima, became disabled and stopped in a store parking lot.
Of all the vehicles in town, 547, or 4.4 percent, run on an alternative fuel system, up from 151 in 2007, according to a Globe review of Registry of Motor Vehicles records. Statewide, the number of hybrid or alternative-fuel vehicles exploded between
According to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, Dellabarba has two prior driving offenses, for speeding in Plymouth in 2000 and driving without a seatbelt in Hull in 2001. Dellabarba posted $5000 bail and was released later that day.
Indeed, the number of alternative-fuel vehicles statewide has exploded between 2007 and this year, more than quintupling from 14000 vehicles to over 70000, according to data from the Registry of Motor Vehicles. However, such vehicles still represent