Rell reconsiders casino drinking idea

(WTNH) - A deadly accident over the weekend has Gov. Jodi Rell rethinking a plan to extend casino drinking hours.

Elizabeth Durante, a student at Connecticut College, died Saturday on I-395 when a wrong-way driver hit the van she was riding in. State Police are looking into whether that the driver accused in this deadly head on crash may have been drinking at one of the casino's earlier in the night.

That revelation is giving Governor Jodi Rell pause to an idea she had been touting during the past several weeks. Rell had wanted casino bars to stay open 24-hours a day so people could generate more revenue for the ailing state coffers.

Within hours of the deadly accident Gov. Rell said, "no proposal or idea is worth the potential loss of innocent young lives."

Durante was killed when the van she was riding in was hit head-on by a drunk driver. State Police say 22-year old Daniel Musser, a sailor at the Groton Sub-base was driving the wrong way on I-395 at 3:45 in the morning Saturday when he crashed into the van.

Durante was a pre-med student and a junior at Connecticut College. She and her classmates were on their way to the airport to go on a medical mission over spring break. She had spent weeks collecting medical supplies to pass out at an orphanage in Uganda.

After graduation Durante wanted to work as a surgeon for Doctors Without Borders.

Musser was arraigned in Norwich Superior Court on Monday. He has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, second-degree manslaughter with a motor vehicle, second-degree assault with a motor vehicle, driving the wrong way on a highway and operating without minimum insurance, police said. He did not enter a plea, but the judge did increase his bond from $100,000 to $300,000.

Durante promoted a substance free lifestyle and lived in the school's substance free dorm.