Another Accident on Old Kensico Speedway!

Police cars, fire trucks and ambulances racing down a street always grab everyone’s attention. Old Kensico Road, also know as Old Kensico Speedway, sees numerous emergency vehicles responding down Old Kensico Road often, responding to police, medical and fire emergencies. This Saturday morning would be no different as responses from our own Greenburgh police and fire departments, Elmsford Fire Department’s ambulance and the Westchester County’s all-volunteer Hazardous Materials Response Team would deal with this mornings serious accident, where, amazingly, the outcome was better than it might have turned out.


Residents throughout the length of Old Kensico Road proper and the adjunct roads that intersect with it, have consistently complained to the Town Board, The Paul, the media and each other about the speeding that routinely takes place on the road. At all times of the day and night one can hear the ninja style motorcycles screaming up and down the street, even racing each other down the road as well.


The “pocket rockets”, typically tricked out Honda Civics, will “gun-it” as they come through the non-existent traffic circle at the south end of Old Kensico where County Center roads intersects it and hammer-down the straight-away at speeds up to 60+ mph until the curve before the I-287 overpass, with no guarantee they’ll slow down there. There's nothing like sleeping with your bedroom windows open on a crisp evening only to be awaken by these vehicles. There was an accident several SuperBowls ago where a girl flipped her mothers’ SUV at Old Kensico and Randolph Roads, taking out two front yard fences and totaling several cars. She was speeding as well as driving while intoxicated! Two people went to the hospital.


What about our resident’s safety and other motorists? Numerous complaints to The Paul, his Stepford Board and the Police Departments have yielded no results or relief for the residents of Old Kensico Road and the streets that intersect with it from the speeding. Residents on Hillside Avenue tell us of similar experiences there. The police representatives even had the audacity to tell residents that when they do pull over speeders, they are usually residents and hesitate to ticket them. Why? If they are speeding, give them a ticket(s). This unsafe condition must be stopped!


Back to this morning’s event. 


The police and fire departments responded to a motor vehicle accident on Old Kensico Road and Stone Avenue, which is toward the northern end of Old Kensico Road. Apparently, a black Nissan headed north on Old Kensico Road ignored the full stop sign. At the same time, a FedEx delivery truck making Mothers Day floral delivers was traveling west, up Stone Avenue after delivering flowers to a house near the corner. There is no full stop on Stone Avenue at Old Kensico Road. The driver of the Nissan who blew through the stop sign was traveling so fast that he hit the truck just behind the drivers door, rupturing the fuel tank, spinning the truck around to a stop, across Stone Avenue and parallel to Old Kensico Road.

Immediately after the accident, the driver of the black Nissan jumped from the car and ran up Stone Avenue, abandoning the car. His car was also turned, facing upwards on Stone Avenue westbound and because he left it running and in gear, it free-rolled down Stone Avenue backwards on to a neighbors lawn, ruining several bushes along the way. Bushes are minor. What about kids playing or homeowners doing yardwork?

Neighbors and then police checked the car and turned it off. During the free roll down Stone Avenue, the car amazingly missed the children playing nearby on Appletree Close, a cul-de-sac the car went past before coming to a stop. 

This picture above highlights some of the distance this car travelled before coming to rest on the lawn at Stone Avenue and Appletree Close. So much could have happened between where the accident took place and where the vehicles wound up. Thankfully, the Fed-Ex driver only sustained a cut on his wrist and was shaken up, but went to the hospital to get checked out. The driver of the black Nissan had not yet been found. Anybody who forgot to purchase a Mothers Day gift for their mom and thought to say their Mother’s Day gift was on this truck as a good excuse, is in trouble. This Fed-Ex truck was off-loaded to another Fed-Ex truck and resumed deliveries within a half hour of the accident happening!

With the Westchester County Hazardous Materials truck in the background, you’ll notice in this final picture the damage to the area where the Fed-Ex truck wound up. The driver said the impact was so hard it raised his truck off the ground. He thought the truck was going to flip when he got hit. Fortunately, it didn’t. Notice the black plastic flower trays near the curb? Beyond view of this photo are more plantings to the left. Again, thankfully, no one was out on this otherwise gorgeous day planting more flowers or the scene may have been more devastating than it already was.


The residents are tired of getting lip service from The Paul and his Stepford Board when they ask for solutions. The residents of Old Kensico Road want and need action taken to slow the traffic, stop speeders and to make Old Kensico Road safer. A sidewalk would also be a tremendous help toward making it a safer street. Let’s at least get the speeding taken care of and then we can worry about other improvements. We can only hope.