UConn Graduate Student Charged With Negligent Homicide Following Fatal Motor Vehicle Crash

Connecticut State Police have charged a 23-year-old,  graduate student with negligent homicide with a motor vehicle in connection with a two-car crash that happened Oct. 29, 2010 on Route 195 and left a 95-year-old town resident dead.

Chujiao Ma, of Foster Drive, in Willimantic, was also charged by warrant at Troop C on Friday with failure to grant the right of way in connection with the two-car crash that happened about 6:15 p.m. just south of Mansfield Center at the intersection of Route 195 and Old Mansfield Hollow Road, state police said.

According to the accident summary, Ma, who was driving a 2004 Toyota Camry on Old Mansfield Hollow Road, had stopped the vehicle at the intersection with Route 195. Ma apparently misjudged the speed of an approaching northbound 2005 Ford Focus operated by Frederick Patrone, then 71, of Silo Circle in the Storrs section of Mansfield and pulled out onto Route 195 in front of it.

Bernard Felton, 95, of Alder Lane, also in Storrs, a passenger in the front seat of Patrone’s car, was fatally injured in the crash. Patrone, who had tried to avoid the collision, was injured as was another passenger in his car, Mary Vermette, then 72, of Silo Road, also in Storrs.

The three were transported by ambulances from Mansfield and Willington to Windham Hospital in Willimantic but Fenton, who was assistant director of the Travelers Insurance Co. when he retired in 1979 and who had been an accounting and fiscal consultant for the Connecticut Hospital Association for 17 years, died from his injuries on Oct. 30. Ma was not injured and refused treatment at the scene, police said.

Both vehicles were heavily damaged and towed, police said.

Ma, who is working toward a doctorate in computer science and engineering at UConn, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. She remains free on a $1,000 non-surety bond and scheduled for arraignment on the charges Sept. 20 in Rockville Superior Court.