Accidents Continue In Stephentown

NYSDOT crews repair the guard rails on Route 43 by Stone Bridge Pond last Thursday morning after a vehicle lost control on the icy road and plunged through the rail and down the embankment. Fortunately the driver was not seriously injured. An accident four days earlier in the same location, the site of recent filming of “Taking Woodstock,” sent another car through the guard rail on the other side of the road and down the embankment into the mud. (David Flint photo)

by David Flint

Route 43 in Stephentown was the site of several more accidents in the past two weeks. Assistant Fire Chief Rik McClave reported that following an accident at Stone Bridge Pond on Sunday, November 30, when an east bound car came down the hill and went through the guard rail and almost to the brook, there were at least three more accidents at that location, the site of recent filming for “Taking Woodstock.” The following morning another east bound car spun out, slightly downhill from the first accident, and took out the guard rail on the opposite side of the road. Then, within an hour, another vehicle took out another section of guard rail also on the north side of the road.╩ Early Thursday morning yet another accident occurred at that spot. This time the driver spun out and chose one section of guard rail that was already down to go through and down the embankment.╩ Fortunately, McClave said, none of these drivers were injured.

McClave reported that this past Sunday during the storm the SVFD responded to another accident just up the road on Rte 43 near Tinley Road.╩A vehicle had spun out and gone off the road.╩ McClave said that Troopers on the scene reported that there had been two more accidents on Rte 43, one again at the Stone Bridge area and another  near the intersection with East Road.╩

McClave believed all the accidents were the result of bad roads, but he also ascribed part of the problem to young drivers not responding correctly to road conditions.╩ On two of the accidents in the Stone Bridge area, he said, the drivers, both 18, reported that they had put on their brakes only when their cars started to skid.