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.
Investigating Dutchess County Sheriff’s deputies found one driver,
Anita Duncan, 71, of Hopewell Junction, trapped in her vehicle. She was
extricated and transported to MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie
where she was pronounced dead.
Police said she was driving southbound on Route 376 when her car was struck
head-on by a northbound vehicle driven by Anthony Testerman, 27, of Wappinger
that had failed to keep right.
Both vehicles then struck a third car, driven by Joseph Quick, 25, of
Kingston, which was headed southbound behind the Duncan car.
Testerman fled the scene on foot immediately after the crash, but was
located by a sheriff’s office K-9 a short time later.
Quick was uninjured.
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 remanded to the Dutchess County Jail in lieu of $50,000 cash bail
or $100,000.
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.
