by Steve Bradley
Three drivers escaped serious injury on Thursday afternoon, March 23, when two of the drivers got into a heated difference and carried it further down the road.
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A Dodge pickup was stopped waiting for a vehicle to turn into County Route 68 (at Cone’s Garage) from Route 22 when a Ford pickup passed the Dodge on the right. The Dodge driver took offense to this and began to chase the Ford.
Photos by Steve Bradley
The two vehicles raced southward. When they got past the corner a vehicle driven by Mark Cuddihy of Cambridge was traveling north between 55 and 60 miles per hour. The trucks split, one on each side of Cuddihy’s vehicle, and continued on. With the Dodge right on the Ford’s back bumper, the Ford driver did a brake check, causing the rear wheels to lock up.
It appears at this point that the vehicles collided, sending the Ford off west side of the road sideways. It went about 70 feet before it hit soft ground and flipped over onto its roof. The Dodge went off the east side of Route 22, hit a slightly elevated driveway entrance, then went airborne for 25 feet. At that point it went sideways with the right rear quarter slamming a tree and pivoting the truck around until it was traveling backwards and hit a tree.
Cuddihy, the driver of the northbound vehicle, was still visibly shaken thirty minutes after the crash. “They went flying by me, one truck on each side me, about a foot from my car on both sides. I saw my life pass before my eyes.”
When it was over, miraculously no one was hurt. Both trucks suffered extensive damage, possibly totaled. The Washington County Sheriff’s Department, the Cambridge Valley Rescue Squad and the Buskirk Fire Department responded to the scene. Wolfrum’s Performance Auto removed the vehicles. [/private]