RHINEBECK – A head-on collision on Route 9 early Tuesday morning claimed the life of a New Jersey man. The underage operator of the second vehicle was not injured in the horrific wreck that happened around 6:25 a.m. in the area of the Matchbox Cafe at 6242 Route 9 in Rhinebeck.
The driver of the SUV was taken into custody by the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office.
A 911 call prompted Dutchess County Sheriff’s deputies and New York State Police to rush to the scene along with members of the Hillside and Rhinebeck Fire Departments. Upon arrival, they observed an SUV, with Connecticut plates in the roadway with front-end damage. The second vehicle, a van, was partially off of the road and in the parking lot of the cafe. The van sustained extensive damage and trapped the driver inside. The operator of the van, a mechanic from New Jersey, was already deceased when the rescuers arrived at the van.
“The van sustained significant damage and the operator did not survive the collision,” Hillside Fire Chief Denny McGuire told Mid-Hudson News. The chief noted that firefighters spent a considerable amount of time working to free the body while members of the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office conducted their preliminary accident investigation and reconstruction.
Sources at the scene told Mid-Hudson News that the operator of the SUV was a 14-year-old boy and the SUV had been stolen from Connecticut. * The picture of the driver being taken into custody has been removed at the request of Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office Captain John Watterson.
The deceased man was a mechanic from a company that services fire apparatus. Mid-Hudson News has learned that he was on his way to a 7:00 a.m. appointment at the Rhinebeck Fire Department to perform maintenance on the department’s ladder truck.
The sheriff is expected to issue a statement in the near future.
