Force of impact broke the car into two pieces
MONGAUP VALLEY – Two boys, ages eight and 10, and an adult driver
were injured Wednesday morning when the Chevrolet Colbalt they were in
ran off Route 17B, in Mongaup Valley, struck a utility pole, broke in
half with one half 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, 41, who Chaboty said is the boyfriend of the children’s mother, was treated and released for minor injuries.
Aiden Demondo, 8, 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 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.
