A rear-end collision on the New York State Thruway in Hillburn on Thursday sent a car crashing through a guardrail and into the Ramapo River, according to New York State Police. The van driver suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to Westchester Medical Center, while the sedan driver declined medical attention at the scene.
The crash happened near Mile Marker 31.1 on the northbound Thruway, according to Rockland Daily, when a 29-year-old Brooklyn man driving a 2022 Ford van rear-ended a 2020 Volkswagen sedan driven by a 47-year-old woman from Round Hill, Virginia. New York State Police say the impact sent the Volkswagen through the guardrail and down an embankment into the Ramapo River, where it came to rest submerged, as reported by Daily Voice.
Multi-Agency Rescue Pulls Occupants From the Water
Firefighters from the Hillburn and Tallman Fire Departments worked alongside New York State Police, Hatzoloh, and Faist EMS to extricate everyone involved, per the same Rockland Daily account. Faist EMS then transported the injured Ford driver to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, while the Volkswagen driver was not hurt badly enough to require treatment on scene.
Westchester Medical Center is the only American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and pediatric trauma center in the Hudson Valley region, according to the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, which is why the injured driver was routed there rather than to a closer hospital. A 2022 release from the hospital noted that motor vehicle crashes accounted for 374 trauma admissions there in 2021, making traffic accidents the second-leading cause of Trauma Intensive Care Unit admissions after falls, according to Westchester Medical Center.
Citations Issued, Court Date Set
Police issued the Ford driver several citations, though authorities have not specified which violations led to them, per Daily Voice's reporting. He is scheduled to appear in Hillburn Village Court at a later date to answer for those citations.
Court records reviewed by the Law Office of Rex M. Pietrobono show that Hillburn Village Court, located at 31 Mountain Avenue, handles trial jurisdiction over traffic infractions and minor offenses within the village of fewer than 1,000 residents, with regular sessions held on Wednesday evenings. Under New York Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 1129(a), motorists are prohibited from following another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent, a statute that New York courts interpret as creating a rebuttable presumption of negligence against a driver who rear-ends another vehicle, according to legal analysis compiled by Justia Law.
What a Following-Too-Closely Ticket Could Mean
A conviction for following too closely under VTL § 1129(a) adds four points to a motorist's driving record and carries court fines of up to $150 for a first offense, plus mandatory state surcharges, according to legal analysis from Weiss & Associates, PC. Drivers who accumulate 11 points on their New York record within 18 months face license suspension under the same framework.
The stretch of Thruway where the crash occurred falls within a reduced speed zone; while most of the I-87/I-90 mainline carries a 65 mph limit, the maximum speed limit drops to 55 mph through Rockland and Westchester counties, per Wikipedia's summary of Thruway infrastructure. The crash is being handled by the New York State Police's Troop T division, which patrols all 570 miles of the Thruway from a Zone 1 station in Tarrytown covering the lower Hudson Valley, according to the New York State Police.
A History of Vehicles Breaching the Ramapo River Gorge
Thursday's crash is not the first time a vehicle has gone off the Thruway into the Ramapo River near Hillburn. In July 2009, a 44-year-old truck driver died when his garbage truck veered off a Thruway exit overpass, dropped roughly 200 feet, and landed in the river along the border of Suffern and Hillburn, according to historical reporting from Tuxedo Park FYI. It remains unknown whether the New York State Thruway Authority plans to inspect or repair the guardrail breached in Thursday's crash.
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