WAPPINGER – A Wappinger man has been arrested and charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident following a three-car crash on Route 376 near Maloney Road in the Town of Wappinger on Saturday night.
Dutchess County Sheriff’s deputies found one driver, Anita Duncan, 71, of Hopewell Junction, trapped in her vehicle. She was pronounced dead at a Poughkeepsie hospital.
Police said she was southbound on Route 376 when her car was struck head-on by a northbound vehicle driven by Anthony Testerman, 27, of Wappinger. He failed to keep right.
Both vehicles then struck a third car, driven by Joseph Quick, 25, of Kingston, which was southbound behind the Duncan car. Quick was uninjured.
Testerman fled on foot immediately after the crash but was located by a sheriff’s office K-9 a short time later.
Testerman was charged with a felony for leaving the scene of a fatal accident, misdemeanors of circumventing an interlock device, aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle and criminal possession of marijuana, as well as refusal to submit to a breath test. He was sent to the Dutchess County Jail in lieu of $50,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond.
The investigation is continuing by the sheriff’s office Detective Bureau and Crash Investigation Unit and further charges are pending.
The sheriff’s office was assisted at the scene by the New Hackensack Fire Department and Town of Wappinger Ambulance.
