by Bea Peterson
At approximately 9 am Monday morning, July 15, a tractor-trailer traveling east on the notorious Route 7 near Tibbett’s Forest failed to negotiate a curve. The truck tipped, then overturned hitting two westbound SUVs, crushing the first one. [private]The truck driver Li Wu Huang, 37, of Brooklyn and vehicle drivers Paul Miller, 74, of Winhall, VT, and Martin L. Blumenthal, 74, of Chatham, NJ, were all injured. Fortunately, none of the injuries were life threatening. Huang was ticketed for unsafe speed and for failure to keep right. According to the NYS Police, a Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit declared the truck’s brakes were inadequate as well.
Route 7 was closed from morning until after 1 pm while police, fire departments and rescue personnel dealt with the accident.
On February 13, in almost the same spot, a fuel tanker truck went off the road, rolling down an embankment and again putting pollutants into Shingle Hollow Brook. In July 2011 a propane tanker rolled over not far from the spot leaking propane into the brook. The driver was badly burned in that incident.
According to reports, DOT officials say there have been 17 large truck accidents on that stretch of road from 2009 until February 13. Overall, there have been 171 accidents on that road in that time frame. Though it may appear to be a great many accidents, DOT officials are reported as saying that it is no more accidents than on similar two lane roads in other areas.
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