He died at Stamford Hospital after sustaining multiple broken bones injury in a head-on car accident on the Merritt Parkway, which happened the day before, in the evening of April 6, 2012. The accident was reported at 7:02 p.m. when a 1999 Lexus RX300 driven by Alexandra Orteig, 18, lost control while traveling south on the parkway near Exit 36 and spun around, striking the center median guardrail and crossing over the highway into the northbound lanes where Getzinger was driving his 2002 Ford F-150 pickup truck in the right-hand lane. The Lexus SUV slammed head-on crushing the front-end of his truck. Orteig and a 17-year-old passenger (both from New Canaan) were also taken to Stamford Hospital.