The owner of a Connecticut trucking company and his wife pleaded not guilty this week to charges related to a 20-vehicle crash in Avon that killed four people in July. David and Donna Wilcox, of Windsor, are accused of trying to get insurance on one of the company’s dump trucks reinstated after it barreled out of control down Avon Mountain and smashed into vehicles waiting at a traffic signal. State authorities say the couple dropped the insurance six months before the crash, which also injured 19 people.
On Tuesday, Nov. 22, they pleaded not guilty in Hartford Superior Court to attempted insurance fraud, attempted first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny, the Associated Press reported. David Wilcox, who owns Bloomfield-based American Crushing & Recycling, is free on $125,000 bail and is to appear in court again on Tuesday, Dec. 13. Donna Wilcox is free on a $50,000 bond and is to return to court on Thursday, Dec. 15.
Prosecutors say the couple tried to restore the liability insurance shortly after the crash, without telling insurers about the accident. David Wilcox’s lawyers maintain that the company did have insurance at the time of the wreck. A court-appointed receiver running the firm said there may be a basis to challenge allegations that the truck was not insured.
