RHAM Teacher Hit by Car in West Hartford Has Died: Police

A 30-year-old RHAM High School teacher who was hit by a car in West Hartford last Wednesday night has died, according to police.

Police said Andrej Cavarkapa, 30, of West Hartford, was jogging west on Asylum Avenue at 6:35 p.m. on Jan. 25 when a 19-year-old South Windsor man going south on Trout Brook Drive hit him.

Cavarkapa was brought to Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford with critical injuries and died Tuesday, according to police.

Supt. Robert Siminski, of Regional School District 8, said Cavarkapa was a physics teacher at RHAM.

"He is a good teacher, well respected by his colleagues and he has a really good relationship with his students," Siminski said last week. "He's an artist, a scientist, a real renaissance guy."

Witnesses told police the driver had a green light on Trout Brook Drive and police said he proceeded through the intersection and hit Cavarkapa, who apparently jogged into the path of the car.

The traffic lights were functioning properly and the driver is cooperating with police, according to a news release from the West Hartford police department.