Ferndale, NY - Cops ticket bus driver in crash on steep hill

Ferndale, NY - Police have ticketed the driver of the bus that crashed into the Middle Mongaup Creek late Thursday with 44 people aboard, 41 of them children from an Orthodox Jewish summer camp.

The children, boys aged 10 to 14, escaped with bumps and bruises, they were en route back to their camp, Shalva D'Bobov (45), near Monticello, after a day at a local fun park as was reported at that time on VOS IZ NEIAS.
State police said the bus driver, Ralph Alicea from Fallsburg-based Rolling V Bus Corp., was going too fast down the steep hill where Ferndale-Loomis Road meets Ferndale Road. "We're thankful there were no serious injuries," said Linda Kleingardner of Rolling V. "The driver was suspended, pending a full investigation."

The bus landed just yards from where a bus load of girls from an Orthodox girls' camp crashed in 2004. "Enough is enough," said Liberty Supervisor Frank DeMayo. "We know of four incidents where (vehicles) have gone into that creek."

On Aug. 22, DeMayo said, the Town Board will discuss hiring a traffic consultant, and possibly banning commercial traffic - including buses - from the lower end of the road.
Councilman Maurice Gerry said he'd like to see better signage, and maybe a blinking light to augment the "stop ahead," "this goes on all year long," he said. "You should hear them squeal down the road."