A tractor-trailer collided with a Skidmore College bus at the intersection of Van Dam and Clinton streets on Saturday, injuring the bus driver and reigniting a years-long fight over truck traffic through downtown Saratoga Springs. The crash has become the latest flashpoint in the city's effort to strip Van Dam Street of its state designation as a truck access route, a change the New York State Department of Transportation says cannot happen without buy-in from the trucking industry itself.
City officials say the driver of the Skidmore vehicle sustained a head injury and was transported to the hospital, according to The Daily Gazette. The truck involved was owned by Xpress Natural Gas, a distribution business based in Maine. Van Dam Street is a single-lane road running through a residential neighborhood inside Saratoga Springs' designated architectural review district, yet it still carries approximately 700 heavy trucks a day, according to traffic data cited in the same report.
DOT Draws a Hard Line on What It Takes to Change the Route
Despite the crash, the state DOT's position has not shifted: removing Van Dam Street's access-highway status requires support from the trucking industry, and the agency needs documented operational deficiencies or a provable history of accidents tied directly to vehicles on that specific route, according to a statement the DOT provided to the Van Dam Street Church Neighborhood Association. Saratoga Springs Deputy Mayor Lisa Shields said Van Dam simply cannot be de-designated without involving the trucking industry, and added that the industry has not responded to the city's outreach so far.
That requirement frustrates a city that has already done considerable homework. A working group formed by Mayor John Safford proposed four alternative routes in June 2025 that would redirect trucks to Exit 13 and onto county and state highways outside the city, and Saratoga Springs presented those routes to the DOT along with an engineering validation study meant to prove their feasibility. The DOT's insistence on trucker buy-in, on top of that technical work, has left local advocates arguing the state keeps moving the goalposts.
A Designation Dating Back Decades
The access-highway status at the center of the dispute traces back decades, though accounts differ on exactly when it began. The Gazette reports the state DOT designated Van Dam Street as an access highway under federal guidelines in 1987 at the request of International Paper, while WAMC has reported the DOT's own account places the designation to 1993. Either way, the route from Northway Exit 15 to State Route 29 still funnels trucks through about 1.5 miles of downtown via Van Dam Street, Church Street and West Avenue.
The city has tried to push back before. Saratoga Springs imposed a five-ton weight limit on Van Dam Street in December 2023, only for the DOT to order the signs removed in January 2024. State Sen. Jim Tedisco had already contacted the DOT that August, asking the agency to review the street's designation and assess restricting heavy truck traffic, an effort that so far has not produced the outcome residents wanted.
Political Pressure Builds After the Crash
Saturday's collision has sharpened the political rhetoric around Van Dam Street. Tedisco issued a call to action following the crash, arguing it justified establishing an alternate truck route, and warned that a pedestrian could be struck or killed by trucks traveling through the neighborhood. His Democratic challenger for the 44th Senate District seat, Sarah Rogerson, said the DOT should act before a fatality and a greater tragedy occur.
Nick Fazioli echoed that urgency, saying lawmakers and DOT commissioners need to act before a more serious crash occurs and warning that someone may die on Van Dam Street without intervention. The Van Dam Street Church Neighborhood Association viewed the DOT's latest directive as yet another delay on an issue residents have been raising for years.
Why Trucks Still Cut Through a Historic District
The underlying pressure comes from freight headed to warehouses that sit beyond the city limits. Walmart and DHL both operate distribution warehouses west of Saratoga Springs, and those centers are accessible via New York State Route 29 — the same corridor the DOT-designated truck route is meant to connect to Northway Exit 15. That logistics reality helps explain why state officials have been reluctant to redraw the map without sign-off from the carriers who rely on it.
The push to reroute trucks away from downtown is not new. Earlier bypass proposals have been discussed, as the Times Union has reported, including a concept along the southern edge of Saratoga Spa State Park that could affect wetlands and cross state-owned land.
More Recent Studies Offer Short-Term Fixes
In September 2023, the Capital Region Transportation Council worked with the mayor's office on a truck-traffic study meant to collect data on how many trucks pass through the city, what routes they take and how fast they travel. A 2025 draft report that followed considered traffic circles, signals and a lower 25-mph speed limit as possible interim measures, according to CBS6 Albany. Safford has called truck-traffic management a top priority, saying short-, medium- and long-term solutions remain on the table.
Separately, News10 has reported that the DOT told the city it would need sound engineering reasoning, including a viable alternate route, before any de-designation could move forward — and the city has submitted a 2025 proposal and validation study. For now, the state's position leaves Van Dam Street's roughly 700 daily trucks rolling through the same residential blocks where Saturday's crash unfolded.
