Pizza Delivery Man Dies in Car After Leaving Oxford Home

A local pizza delivery man died of an apparent heart attack in his car after dropping off food in Oxford Wednesday night, just three days shy of his 41st birthday.

Edward Novitski, of 7 Fourth St. in Ansonia, made a delivery for Silvano's Pizza in Seymour before getting in his car to drive back to the restaurant around 7:30 p.m., police said. He suffered a medical condition, crossed into the opposite lane and struck a mound of snow that had been plowed on the side Park Road near its intersection with Manitook Road near Swan Lake, police said.

State troopers and local police attempted to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR, before he was taken by ambulance to Griffin Hospital in Derby where he was later pronounced dead, Resident Trooper Sgt. Dan Semosky said.

The Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner in Farmington said the autopsy results were unavailable Thursday and likely wouldn't available until the weekend. The office said cause and manner of death is not made available on the weekend, meaning that information would not be released to the press until Monday.

Workers at Silvano's remembered Novitski fondly on Thursday.

Manager Tony Pagliuso said he was a good, dependable worker who never appeared in a bad mood. He said Novitski was single and had no children; Novitski also worked at Ansonia Motors as a used car salesman, Pagliuso said.

Novitski had worked at the restaurant years ago and recently came back to work on and off, Pagliuso said.

Acavio Alves, another employee at Silvano's, said Novitski was an avid New York Mets and Giants fan.

"He always wanted to talk about what you thought of the game," Alves said. "He was always in a good mood. It's really sad to this happen."