Three people ended up in the hospital on Friday after a car attempting to park at a Taconic State Parkway rest stop in Dutchess County suddenly accelerated, jumped the curb and struck two pedestrians on the sidewalk. The driver, an 84-year-old Hudson man, was also hospitalized following the crash at the Taste of New York rest area in the town of LaGrange.
According to WRGB, New York State Police were dispatched to the rest stop for a reported personal-injury collision involving pedestrians. A preliminary investigation found that a 2014 Subaru operated by Charles W. Schaubhut, 84, of Hudson, was attempting to park in a space at the rest area when the vehicle accelerated, according to New York State Police.
The car traveled over the curb and onto the sidewalk before striking two pedestrians, ages 67 and 71, both of Hillsdale, New York, the station reported. All three people involved — Schaubhut and the two pedestrians — were transported to local hospitals for treatment of injuries that authorities believe are non-life-threatening.
A Stretch of Parkway With a History of Serious Crashes
The rest stop sits along a stretch of the Taconic State Parkway that has seen other serious collisions in recent years. State police previously investigated a fatal wrong-way crash in the area, in which a 35-year-old LaGrange driver in a 2017 BMW X1 was found to have traveled north in the southbound lane near Todd Hill Road on October 16, 2024, per New York State Police.
That same month, a wrong-way wreck near the Taste of New York rest area left two people dead, according to a report from Mid Hudson News. State police also responded to a separate fatal crash on the parkway in LaGrange on October 22, 2024, and a wrong-way collision northbound on the parkway was reported in January.
No further details have been released about whether the driver in Friday's crash faced any citations, and updated conditions for the two injured pedestrians have not been made public. The investigation into the parking-lot collision remains ongoing.
