Tisbury Police responded to two Halloween mishaps on Saturday night
By Nelson Sigelman
Published: November 5, 2009
Tisbury Police responded to a report of a child struck by a car and a report of a car that had struck a fence within a short distance of each other in a neighborhood crowded with parents and young Halloween trick or treaters on Saturday evening.
At 6:25 pm police responded to a report of a motor vehicle accident at the intersection of Center and Pine streets, where Aurelia Buftea, 22, drove a 2001 Ford Focus into a stockade fence around the property of Ruth Stiller.
Ms. Buftea was operating the vehicle with a learner's permit. She told police she was at the stop sign at Center Street and Pine Street when she accidentally hit the accelerator. In an attempt to avoid children on the other side of the street, she steered the vehicle into the fence, police said.
Bogdan Buftea, the owner of the vehicle and Ms. Buftea's brother, was in the passenger seat at the time of the crash. "I advised him that that it was not a good idea to let an inexperienced driver operate a vehicle tonight, due to the darkness and the very high density of young pedestrians," officer Kelly Kershaw wrote in her report. "Mr. Buftea agreed."
The vehicle was towed. Mr. Buftea agreed to repair the fence, and no charges were filed.
About five minutes after police received a call about the crash at the intersection, they received a report that a car had struck a child near the rear of the Tisbury School on Spring Street. Police and emergency medical technicians arrived.
According to the police report, Melissa Shephard-Breese of West Tisbury stopped on Spring Street, and her ten-year-old daughter, a young friend and a puppy left the car and ran across the street to go trick or treating at a house. The mother parked her car in the Tisbury School parking lot while the children and the puppy ran across the street.
The child was struck when she ran out into the travel lane, said a witness. The operator of the vehicle, Robert Nicotera of Rexford, N.Y., told police he did not see the girl and that she ran into the driver's side of his vehicle.
The girl was transported to the Martha's Vineyard Hospital emergency room. At the ER, Ms. Breese spoke to Tisbury Police officer Michael Gately. She told him that she was angry that a car without its headlights on had struck her child. Officer Gately told Ms. Breese that reliable witnesses had confirmed to him that the headlights were on.
Angrily, according to police, Ms. Breese asked Officer Gately for his business card, name, and badge number. The police officer says in his report that in his conversation with Ms. Breese, he detected a strong odor of alcohol on her breath. The EMT and nurse confirmed the odor.
