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State Police are investigating a motor vehicle crash that occurred early Saturday morning.
Updated April 08, 2023 12:49PM

Driver in Clarksburg Crash Charged With Manslaughter in Toddler Son's Death

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The utility pole was split at the bottom.
Update 3 p.m.: Darrel A. Galorenzo has been charged with manslaughter; reckless endangerment; negligent operating of a motor vehicle, operating to endanger; and operating under the influence. He is being held on $100,000 bail.
 
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — State Police say Saturday morning's motor vehicle accident on Middle Road resulted in the death of a toddler. 
 
Authorities say the preliminary investigation suggests the 2-year-old boy died after his father, while fleeing the scene of a motor vehicle crash on foot, lost the child in Hudson Brook.
 
A trooper from the Cheshire barracks and Clarksburg firefighters who responded to the crash located and pulled the child from the brook. The child was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.
 
According to scanner reports, the rollover occurred shortly before 2 a.m. just south of the Middle Road bridge and that a child had been found in Hudson Brook.  
 
Police say the child's father, Darrel A. Galorenzo, 35, of Readsboro, Vt., was determined to have been operating under the influence and was taken into custody by State Police. Further charges related to the death of the child are expected and will be determined upon completion of the ongoing investigation.
 
Galorenzo was apparently southbound in a 2015 Subaru Crosstrek when the vehicle  crashed into a mailbox and then into a utility pole at about 1:58 a.m. Middle Road was closed or partially closed for hours and the scene wasn't cleared until after 10 a.m. 
 
Within minutes, a trooper and Northern Berkshire EMS were on scene and immediately learned that a young child who had been in the vehicle was unaccounted for, according to a press release by the State Police. 
 
Galorenzo was reportedly present in the area of the brook as well.
 
Troopers and firefighters immediately began searching Hudson Brook for the child, and located him in the water shortly before 2:20 a.m. close to 150 Middle Road. Emergency medical technicians began first-aid on scene for drowning injuries and the child was taken Berkshire Medical Center's satellite emergency facility in North Adams, where he was pronounced dead.
 
Troopers at the scene say Galorenzo's actions were consistent with his being intoxicated and he was taken to BMC North for evaluation under police guard. After he was examined and discharged, a trooper transported him to the barracks, where he remains in custody. 
 
In addition to the OUI and negligent operation of a motor vehicle charges, additional charges related to the toddler's death are anticipated.
 
The facts and circumstances of the incident remain under investigation by Berkshire County District Attorney's Office and State Police, including the county Detective Unit, the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section, and the Crime Scene Services Section. 
 
The District Attorney's Office will issue an updated release upon completion of the investigation.

Tags: fatal,   MVI,   

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Clarksburg Looking to AG's Receivership Program to Help With Distressed Properties

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

 
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The town is looking to move two properties into receivership to get them cleaned up and back on the tax rolls. 
 
Health Agent Valerie Bird has raised the idea last month when a Daniels Road property was ordered vacated for multiple code violations. Bird and the Select Board didn't believe the owner had the capacity to address the myriad issues. 
 
Bird recommended the Attorney General's receivership program, which takes blighted property and, through the court system, gets it into the hands of a developer who can rejuvenate it. 
 
Maja Kazmierczak, assistant attorney general with the Neighborhood Renewal Division, offered a virtual presentation to the board on Monday, explaining the program and how it might be able to help Clarksburg. 
 
"We've partnered with over 170 municipalities, and we definitely have over probably about 215 active properties that we're working on," she said. "We've had just about $715,000 in back taxes returned to municipalities through our program."
 
The program has been around for 30 years in various forms, with the goal to turn abandoned and blighted properties that have code violations into safe housing. 
 
The state's receivership statute allows the court to appoint a receiver to a property if there are code violations and there is no one to repair them.
 
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