Woman dies in car crash at Parade Plaza in New London
New London — Police said a 41-year-old woman has died at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital after crashing early Sunday morning into a fixture at the Parade Plaza at the corner of Bank and State streets.
In a Sunday news release, police said they had responded to the plaza at 12:37 a.m. Sunday. When they arrived, they found a heavily damaged motor vehicle, with the injured driver, Joslyn Wakefield, inside.
Wakefield was taken from the vehicle by the New London Fire Department, and transported to L+M, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
Wakefield's last known address is uncertain, police said, adding the department has notified her next-of-kin.
Police did not specify further what the fixture was that Wakefield had crashed into, but on Sunday night bits of plastic and glass debris appearing to be from a car accident could be found near the south-facing steps to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. There, a heavy concrete block was also displaced.
Police said they are investigating, and asked anyone with information to call the department's detective bureau at (860) 447-1481, or to submit information anonymously to the New London Tips 411 system.
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Ms Bird has high praise for the work of Lord Timpson, Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending, who employs ex-prisoners to work in Timpson shops. "He's on the right track. Give people a second chance," she says. "How lucky I was to be given a chance in the prison service. Two years I thought I'd be there. But, 35 years later, I was still there and continued in retirement working in jobs to do with prison." During her time in the service, Ms Bird watched over members of the IRA such as Old Bailey bombers the Price Sisters, Rose Dugdale, and the Birmingham Six – who were later exonerated. She "gave her life" to prisons, she says, never having had a family or partner of her own. "Leaving Brockhill, the staff said to me: 'Governor, please can we give some advice - don't give your life to the next prison, like you have given to this prison.' And yes, I suppose I gave my life to prisons and prisoners," she says. 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