Crew removes rear portion of the car
MONGAUP VALLEY – Two boys, ages eight and 10, and a 34-year-old
male driver were injured Wednesday morning when the Chevrolet Colbalt
they were in ran off the road, struck a utility pole, broke in half with
half of the vehicle bursting into flames.
Sullivan County Undersheriff Eric Chaboty said a county DPW worker saw
the fire, pulled over and attempted to put it out with his fire extinguisher.
Monticello firefighters arrived on the scene and quelled the flames.
Both boys were seriously injured while the driver, Luis Diaz, who Chaboty
said is the boyfriend of the children’s mother, was treated and
released for minor injuries.
The boys were identified as Aiden Demondo, 8, who was listed in serious,
but not life-threatening condition at Catskill Regional Medical Center.
His brother, Noah Demondo, 10, was in critical condition with life-threatening
injuries at Westchester Medical Center.
Diaz was charged with driving with a suspended license and driving while
ability impaired by drugs.
Sheriff’s deputies and State Police later executed a search warrant
at his residence in White Lake, although what, if any evidence, they secured
was not disclosed..
Assisting sheriff’s deputies at the scene of the crash and during
the investigation were State Police BCI, Monticello Fire Department and
Fire Police, Mobile Medic and Bethel constables.
The location of the crash, next to a NYSEG substation, is the same spot
where six people were killed in July 2005 when their speeding car crashed
into a dump truck.
The car in the 2005 accident was being driven by a 20-year-old female
counselor from the Atlanta Dance Camp in South Fallsburg, while the others
were campers. They were on their way to go swimming.
