Gravel Hill Crash: SUV & Truck Collide at Problematic Intersection

by Colleen Curry on May 10th, 2010 Comment

- Michelle Sahn -

As soon as Richard Falcon heard the crash, he knew it was serious,
he said.
And as he has done before, he grabbed his phone and began to dial 911 as he ran out the door of his home on the corner of Gravel Hill Road and Route 537 this morning.

Residents have been asking for a traffic light to be installed at that corner, and late last year, county officials said there were three proposed improvement plans for the intersection.

This morning, Falcon, 68, said a sport utility vehicle and a truck, hauling some sort of machinery on a trailer, were involved in the crash at the corner.

The SUV wound up in his backyard, he said.

One of the occupants of the truck was lying on the road, and within a minute or so, an ambulance crew who happened to be driving down the road, stopped to help, he said.

He said more vehicles arrived and ultimately, that man was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Within 15 to 30 minutes, he said he saw a helicopter landing at nearby CentraState Medical Center.

Police this morning said a medevac was being called to transport someone who had been injured in the crash.

Falcon said the SUV narrowly missed his house. He did not know if the vehicle damaged his property or landscaping because police this morning asked him to stay away from that part of his yard until their investigation was complete.

""There's been problems with this intersection for years,'' Falcon said. ""It's
unfortunate, (but) there's been so many accidents there that I really have to watch myself when I go out do work on the property.''

When he and his wife, Kathleen, moved into their home some 15 years, ago, they were told a traffic light would eventually be installed at the corner, he said.

Less than six months ago, there was another crash in which a car wound up less than 10 feet from his door, said Falcon, adding that a group of 40 or 50 residents from the neighborhood sent letters and went to a meeting at town hall to discuss the
intersection.

In December, county officials said there were three options for improving the
intersection, and all three would include a traffic light, but they would also require 14 property owners to give up land, either temporarily or permanently.

More information about the accident is expected to be available later today.