Father Shares Grief After Fatal Dirt Bike Crash
VOLUNTOWN — Jack Cipriano is grappling with the aftermath of a horrific accident that took place near his home in Voluntown. On Monday, a pickup truck collided with three dirt bikes on Ekonk Hill Road (Route 49), resulting in the death of one rider and injuries to two others. Cipriano’s son, Jace, was among the injured. He rushed to the scene after his son asked a motorist to call him.
“I never want to experience anything like that in my life again,” Cipriano said, describing the scene as “just awful.”
Michael Alan Davis, 28, of Norwich, was pronounced dead at Backus Hospital soon after the crash, which Connecticut State Police said happened at about 7:30 p.m. Brett Collins, 26, of Niantic, was seriously injured, while Jace Cipriano, 20, suffered relatively minor injuries, according to his father.
Edward Boyle, 64, of Griswold, was driving a Ford F-150 pickup truck south when it collided with the three men on dirt bikes, police said. A fourth rider, identified in the police report as George Etzel, 25, of Voluntown, avoided injury. Jack Cipriano said Etzel pulled his injured friends off the road and was “covered in blood” when Cipriano arrived.
Scott Davis, Michael’s father, shared that his son was a Norwich native and graduate of Norwich Free Academy. The two worked together at New York Bus Sales in Waterford. He last saw Michael on Monday when they delivered a van.
Michael was single and had a passion for dirt bike riding, his father said. “Every day when the sun was out,” he would ride.
Funeral arrangements are pending, but the family plans to delay the service until Collins is well enough to attend. Prior to the crash, the four friends had been fishing and riding together on trails in Voluntown. The battery on Collins’s e-bike, a Talaria TL 4000, died, according to Jack Cipriano. They were headed to his place on James Road when the accident occurred.
Davis and Jace Cipriano were on gas-powered bikes and had been pulling Collins, who was holding onto their jackets, along the roadside, Jack Cipriano said. Davis, riding furthest to the left, took the brunt of the impact. At the hospital, Cipriano found Collins had broken bones and other injuries, but was conscious and talking. His son, Jace, had only road rash and was limping slightly.
“These kids are mentally distraught,” Cipriano said. The emotional injuries will take longer to heal.
State police confirmed that Boyle, the driver of the pickup truck, is on the state’s sex offender registry. He served 19 years for the 1980 killing of Louisa Scott and the rapes of five other women, according to the Associated Press. He was released in 1999 but arrested again for the rape of a 14-year-old girl and served more time. Authorities discovered during a 2011 parole hearing that Boyle was communicating with the girl from prison. He was released from prison in 2020.
Authorities ask anyone who witnessed the crash to contact CSP Trooper Timothy Wengloski at 860-848-6500.
