Driver pleads not guilty in Sheffield crash that killed Hotchkiss graduate

SHEFFIELD — A Connecticut man charged in a fatal drunk driving accident in Sheffield on Feb. 28 has pled not guilty in a court arraignment.Federick Weller, 35, of Sandy Hook, a section of Newtown, Conn., is facing his fifth drunk driving arrest. His license was suspended at the time of the accident, in which he drove his pickup truck into the southbound lane of Route 7 and hit four cars. Moira Banks-Dobson, 24, of Sheffield, died at the scene when Weller’s pickup truck drove onto and crushed her Toyota Corolla. She graduated from The Hotchkiss School in 2005 and Yale University last year. She was returning home from a job as a tutor in Pittsfield when the accident occurred just before 7 p.m.Russell Brown, 52, of Great Barrington, Mass., was driving a Dodge Neon that was struck, and is reported to be hospitalized in critical condition. The remaining four people in the four vehicles had minor or no inuries.A North Canaan family was in the line of cars involved, but avoided a direct collision with Weller’s truck.Sheffield police said earlier this week they were still reconstructing the accident. They were almost certain Banks-Dobson’s car was the last to be struck. According to statements made in the warrant, Weller was observed driving north and excessively slowly through the center of Sheffield. His Ford F350 hit a guardrail near Sheffield Pottery and he took off at a high rate of speed. About a mile farther north, just south of the Kellogg Road intersection, he crossed into the southbound lane. “The first car to get hit was the one in front of us,” said Darlene Webb, who was the front seat passenger in the car driven by her husband, Joe Webb. Their 9-year-old daughter, Brianna, was in the back seat. “We just got hit by stuff from the first car. The car behind us got hit, and I’m not sure where the other two were in line. “I’m pretty sure the woman who died was the last to get hit because the truck ended up on top of her car. I went up to help the woman in the first car. She was OK and I stayed there with my daughter while Joe went back to help.”There was little warning, Webb said. That section of road is not lit. But it’s straight, and she recalled her husband remarking that the headlights coming at them appeared odd.“It looked like someone swerving. We didn’t think too much of it at first.”After the crash, Weller reportedly tried to leave the scene on foot, allegedly threatening to kill two men who tried to stop him, according to newspaper reports. Police soon arrived and the two men directed them to Weller, who was in a nearby field, with moderate injuries, his face bleeding from a gash. According to one firefighter, he told police he thought he was in Danbury.Weller was hospitalized at Berkshire Medical Center until Friday, March 2, when he was released, arrested and taken directly to Southern Berkshire District Court in Great Barrington. He is charged with motor vehicle homicide involving operating under the influence or neglect, operating under the influence, operating under the influence with serious injury, operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license, witness intimidation and two counts of leaving the scene of property damage.Weller was sent from court to the Berkshire County House of Corrections to be held without bail until a bond hearing schedule for March 8.Canaan Fire Company and North Canaan Volunteer Ambulance Corps volunteers responded to a request for mutual aid.A portion of Route 7 was closed for the entire night as the scene was investigated and cleared.