BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CENTRAL FALLS — A city resident is dead and his passenger injured after losing control of his vehicle in the Hedley Avenue area Tuesday morning, according to police.

A Cadillac Escalade lost control, hitting parked vehicles and then flipping on its side, according to Colonel Joseph Moran, the city’s chief of police. No one outside of the vehicle was hurt, according to Moran.
The driver was identified as 20-year-old Kevin Cesario, formerly of Central Falls. His passenger was identified as Lewis Haduk, whom Moran said might have been a Central Falls resident as well, though his place of residence was unclear as of press time.
Moran added that learning of Cesario’s death affected him personally, saying he had known Cesario as an able, well-regarded football and basketball player.
“I knew him as a good kid,” the police chief said. “He (came from) a nice family. It’s just an unfortunate incident.”
According to Moran, the accident that claimed Cesario’s life occurred sometime in the early hours of the morning, with police receiving a call reporting a crash near 90 Hedley Avenue at about 1:40 a.m. He said the Escalade was traveling down Hedley at a high rate of speed, when it hit a parked car and apparently lost control. In all, Moran said the Escalade hit two vehicles and struck a telephone pole, finally ending up on its side.
The exact cause of the accident was not known as of press time, with Lt. Joseph Gonsalves performing accident reconstruction after some help in this regard from the state police. Moran said that speed was “definitely a factor” in the accident, but added that the department was awaiting the results of a toxicology report.
Moran said it had not been determined if Cesario or Haduk had been ejected from the vehicle. He added that rumors of the vehicle traveling on the wrong side of the road were not verified either, adding that traffic on the stretch of road where the accident occurred only travels one way.
Moran said the state medical examiner’s office had informed police that Cesario had suffered head trauma and multiple fractures. Haduk was reportedly hospitalized and released later in the day.