SAUGERTIES, N.Y — The driver who allegedly crossed a double-yellow line in a no-passing zone on Route 9W in the hamlet of Glasco and caused a crash that landed him and two other people in hospitals has been charged with reckless endangerment and reckless driving, police said Thursday.
In addition to the two misdemeanor charges, James N. Cintron, 73, of Dock Street, Saugerties, was charged with three traffic violations, according to the Saugerties Police Department.
Cintron remained hospitalized Thursday at Westchester Medical Center with injuries suffered in the crash, Police Chief Joseph Sinagra said.
About 7:20 p.m. Monday, Sinagra had stopped his patrol car on U.S. Route 9W southbound in Glasco, about a quarter-mile south of Glasco Turnpike, to assist the driver of a vehicle that had struck and killed a deer. The driver of the disabled 2018 Subaru Legacy had activated the hazard lights on the vehicle but was unable to move it off the road, the chief said.
Cintron’s southbound 2019 Honda Ridgeliner drove into the northbound lane to avoid the stopped vehicles and struck, head-on, a 2017 Jeep Wrangler driven by a 16-year-old Kingston female, Sinagra said.
The impact of the crash catapulted Cintron’s Honda backward, into the disabled Subaru. The Subaru driver, who was not identified, was not injured, but all three vehicles were totaled, the chief said.
The 16-year-old, whose name was not provided, was removed from her vehicle and flown by helicopter to the Albany Medical Center. Sinagra said Thursday that she had been released.
Cintron suffered serious injuries and was taken by Mobile Life Ambulance to the trauma center at MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie and then transferred to Westchester Medical Center. A 60-year-old female passenger in Cintron’s vehicle, also not identified, was taken to the HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus in Kingston. The conditions of Cintron and his passenger were not immediately available.
Sinagra said charges against Citron were filed in Saugerties Town Court and an arraignment will be in a about month.