Cameras aid probe of fatal accident
Girl, 17, died after being struck by car
TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. » Investigators are reviewing security camera footage from “a couple of places” along Lucas Avenue that might have captured images of the nearby car-pedestrian accident that claimed the life of a teenage girl, Ulster County Sheriff’s Capt. Vincent Altieri said Friday.
A clerk at Lucas Avenue Wine & Liquors, who would not give her name to a reporter, told the Free
man police reviewed footage from the store’s cameras on Thursday and then took it with them. The clerk said the footage showed the accident.
The liquor store, diagonally across the road from where the accident happened, has two outdoor security cameras mounted on an overhang near the front door.
Ulster County Undersheriff Michael Freer said all evidence in the case was being examined and that it would be “a few weeks” before the process is done.
Jennifer Curry, 17, a town of Ulster resident, was struck by a car at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday as she walked alongside Lucas Avenue in Ulster, near Spring Lake Drive. The Sheriff’s Office said the car, a 2007 Infiniti sedan, was southbound and Curry was walking north on the shoulder next to the southbound lane. The liquor store is on the northbound side of Lucas Avenue.
Friday afternoon, balloons and a handmade sign paying tribute to Curry were attached to a post outside of DiBella’s Pizza Shop & Ristorante, on the southbound side Lucas Avenue and near the accident scene. Restaurant owner Renato DiBella said he knew Curry and her family as customers and neighbors.
“It’s sad when you have a situation like this for the family, first of all, and for the neighbors all around, especially at a young
age,” DiBella said. He said many people stopped at the makeshift memorial throughout the day Friday to pay respects.
“It hurts. A day like this hurts,” he said.
Altieri said Curry was walking to the Stewart’s store on Lucas Avenue to pick up something for a relative when she was struck. She died at HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus in Kingston after being brought there by a Mobile Life ambulance.
The Infiniti was driven by Carol Melamed, 69, of Kerhonkson, the Sheriff’s Office said. No charges against Melamed had been reported as of Friday evening.
Altieri said there was no evidence or indication that Melamed was driving while impaired, and he noted she “was willing gladly to give us blood.”
The captain said Curry’s death was a “terrible, terrible tragedy” that, “at the moment ... appears like a tragic accident.”
State police will determine Melamed’s speed at the time of the accident, and the Sheriff’s Office will get a warrant for her phone records to determine whether she was using a cellphone when Curry was hit, Altieri said. He added, though, that there was “no indication” she was talking on her cellphone or texting when Curry was hit.
The captain said he did not know if Curry had a cellphone with her at the time of the accident or, if so, whether she was using it. He did say that she “was walking against traffic, which is the way you’re supposed to walk.”
Even though the Sheriff’s Office has said Curry was on the shoulder when she was struck, Freer said a state police accident reconstruction team still will work to determine whether Melamed’s car was in its lane when it struck the girl.
The Kingston school district had grief counselors available Friday at the Kingston High School and J. Watson Bailey Middle School tor students dealing with Curry’s death. Curry just completed 11th grade at the high school and was an honor student.
Town of Ulster Supervisor James Quigley declined to comment on the accident Friday, saying he had not seen a report “on the facts and circumstances” of the incident, which occurred on a county road in his town.
Quigley did say that “the town takes the safety of its citizens, particularly the safety of its pedestrians, very seriously.”
The supervisor said town planners encourage sidewalk development wherever possible in “highly trafficked areas,” and he noted the town’s “Route 9W Comprehensive Review Plan” has provisions for sidewalks along U.S. Route 9W, in the heart of the town’s commercial district, where they are feasible.