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Heavy Entrapment, Fatality on West Mount Airy Road
By Ryan Santistevan, Rockland/Westchester Journal News
January 13, 2021
CORTLANDT — A 32-year-old Bronx man was killed Wednesday night after his van struck a tree stump and telephone pole, state police said.
Samuel A. Puerto Paz was driving west on Mount Airy Road in a 2006 Ford Econoline when for unknown reasons he drove off the road, police said. The van overturned and he was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
A 20-year-old passenger from the Bronx was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Police responded to the scene at 5:25 p.m. After he hit the stump, he lost control of the van, reentered the road into both lanes, overturned and hit the pole, police said.
The road was closed and the scene was cleared at 8:29 p.m. The crash remains under investigation.
The Croton-on-Hudson Fire Department posted on Facebook that multiple "hydraulic, electric and battery-operated tools" were used to remove the trapped victim. The 20-year-old was able to exit the van.
Ryan Santistevan is the breaking news reporter for the Poughkeepsie Journal, Journal News and Times Herald-Record. Reach her at rsantistev@gannett.com; 845-437-4809 or follow her on Twitter, @NewsByRyan
Units:
2081. 2082, 2083, E118, E119, R18, U14, U208
E120 standing by at Station #3
