SENNETT - Two Syracuse women were killed Sunday when their car pulled in front of an oncoming tractor trailer at the intersection of Turnpike Road and Route 34 in Sennett on Sunday, state police said.
Jill Connor / The Citizen
State police, Cayuga County Sheriff's officials and the Sennett Fire Department investigate the accident between a Chrysler sedan and a tractor trailer Sunday. Traffic on Route 34 was detoured while they investigated the accident and cleared the road.
State police, Cayuga County Sheriff's officials and the Sennett Fire Department investigate the accident between a Chrysler sedan and a tractor trailer Sunday. Traffic on Route 34 was detoured while they investigated the accident and cleared the road.
Investigator Joel Pinker said the driver of the northbound truck never had a chance to stop before striking the driver's side of a 2001 four-door Chrysler as it pulled into the intersection off of Turnpike Road at about 1 p.m.
The driver, Katherine Dulian, 81, and her sister, Helen Kilecki, 85, both of Powell Street, were pronounced dead at the scene and will be transported to the Onondoga County Medical Examiner's Office, Pinker said.
Nearly 40 feet of skid marks were left behind by the truck just north of the intersection. The skid marks drifted across the southbound lane leading to where the truck left the road with the car still pinned to its bumper.
A large tarp was used to cover the twisted remains of the car until emergency workers could remove the two women from the wreckage.
Investigating officers photographed several pieces of debris, including the car's bumper and head light, that littered the road and ditch.
The truck driver, Edward Calkins, of Baldwinsville, was transported to Auburn Memorial Hospital and treated for an ankle injury, Pinker said.
A small section of Route 34 was closed for several hours with traffic rerouted to side roads.
While the intersection use to be notoriously dangerous, Pinker said there have been few serious accidents since the state Department of Transportation reconstructed it in 2001.
The area was altered by shifting the intersection to the south by several hundred feet, allowing the roads to meet at a 90-degree angle improving visibility in all directions. Originally, the roads intersected at a weird angle with a hill interfering with drivers' line-of-sight.
The $1.14 million construction was approved after the DOT noticed there were 18 accidents in a three-year period despite installing a flashing yellow light.
The driver, Katherine Dulian, 81, and her sister, Helen Kilecki, 85, both of Powell Street, were pronounced dead at the scene and will be transported to the Onondoga County Medical Examiner's Office, Pinker said.
Nearly 40 feet of skid marks were left behind by the truck just north of the intersection. The skid marks drifted across the southbound lane leading to where the truck left the road with the car still pinned to its bumper.
A large tarp was used to cover the twisted remains of the car until emergency workers could remove the two women from the wreckage.
Investigating officers photographed several pieces of debris, including the car's bumper and head light, that littered the road and ditch.
The truck driver, Edward Calkins, of Baldwinsville, was transported to Auburn Memorial Hospital and treated for an ankle injury, Pinker said.
A small section of Route 34 was closed for several hours with traffic rerouted to side roads.
While the intersection use to be notoriously dangerous, Pinker said there have been few serious accidents since the state Department of Transportation reconstructed it in 2001.
The area was altered by shifting the intersection to the south by several hundred feet, allowing the roads to meet at a 90-degree angle improving visibility in all directions. Originally, the roads intersected at a weird angle with a hill interfering with drivers' line-of-sight.
The $1.14 million construction was approved after the DOT noticed there were 18 accidents in a three-year period despite installing a flashing yellow light.
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Post your comment - click hereThere are 5 comment(s)
james_13021 wrote on Aug 17, 2009 7:31 PM:
It really comes down to lowering the grade at the top of the hill by a few feet to give motorist a full view up the road. So simple an idea, but yet so few able to understand. "
FS II wrote on Aug 17, 2009 5:36 PM:
newsnews2 wrote on Aug 17, 2009 4:09 PM:
FS II wrote on Aug 17, 2009 1:11 PM:
lmc123 wrote on Aug 17, 2009 11:36 AM: