NEW HAVEN -- A teenager was in critical condition Thursday and underwent brain surgery at the hospital, and police had two wrecked vehicles several hundred yards apart on a residential street in Westville.

What happened in the pre-dawn hours along Yale Avenue, however, remained a mystery even late in the day as members of the accident reconstruction team investigated the serious crash.

While police had a possible identification on the victim, they said they won't know for certain of ID until today after taking fingerprints.

"It's not adding up that they just collided," said Lt. Ken Howell, a patrol supervisor at the scene who oversees the crash squad.

Police were examining the possibility that the two vehicles were racing before the crash, based on accounts from residents, but even that would leave questions.

This is what police have: A stolen Jeep Cherokee on its roof with heavy damage in the 300 block of Yale Avenue. When police arrived, there were no occupants to be found. Skid marks suggested the car was speeding south.

Up the street in the 400 block, police found a Toyota about 20 feet off the road in an Edgewood Park woods. They found a victim outside the car, unconscious, suffering from head injuries. Grass marks where the car left the road at a sharp bend suggested it was northbound.

Both vehicles had been stolen in Hamden overnight within blocks of each other. That left police trying to reconcile the physical evidence and distance between the crashes to determine how it all fit in the puzzle.

While the two crashes seemed related, Howell stressed that police aren't ruling out any scenario.

Police still didn't know the identity of the only victim emergency workers could find. No one had come to the hospital by late Thursday afternoon, and he didn't have any identification.

Police discussed sending detectives to the hospital to take his fingerprints in hope that his prints were in a police database. Later, they came up with a possible ID, but didn't know for certain.

A resident who didn't want to be identified said he heard two vehicles racing up and down Yale Avenue in the hour before the crash.

"It's like my mattress was on I-91 last night, it was so loud."

Then he heard the impact of the Jeep and about a minute later heard the Toyota.

Yale Avenue residents have long complained about speeding. At Edgewood Avenue, Yale Avenue is a several-hundred-yard straightaway north before a slight bend to the left quickly turns into a sharp curve, which is where the Toyota crashed.

"This happens often around here, the accidents," said Maribel Torres, a 21-year resident of Yale Avenue. "Especially on this curve."

"I think they should put in speed bumps. It happens all the time. It's 25 mph (speed limit), but people are doing 70," said another resident, who didn't want to provide his name.

Down near the other crash, Joanna Price, a seven-year resident, echoed the concerns.

"The problem with this street is the cars go way too fast. Everyone along this stretch wishes there were speed bumps or something."

There were still many unknowns about the wrecks.

?If the vehicles were together or racing, why did they appear to crash while traveling in opposite directions so far apart?

?With two crashed vehicles, what happened to the occupants beyond the one victim who was found?

Police and firefighters also searched the woods around the wrecked Toyota.

It's possible, police said, that both cars were southbound on Yale when the Jeep went out of control and rolled.

That led to several theories: That the Toyota driver spun around and fled north as the occupant or occupants of the Jeep ran away. Or that the Toyota driver stopped, loaded any occupants from the Jeep into that car, and then spun around and fled north before failing to negotiate the turn and crashing himself.

Contact William Kaempffer at 203-789-5727. To receive breaking news first, text the word nhnews to 22700. Standard msg+data rates may apply.

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