ACCIDENT AT ROUTE 20, 80
CRASH KILLS ONE,
DEPUTY BREAKS
LEGS IN COLLISION
BY JENNIFER HILL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
SPRINGFIELD CENTER – Matthew McIvor saw the whole thing.
At around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, at the State Police barracks in Richfield Springs, across the street from his house, “I saw him the woman get into her car, a black Jeep, and the man kept shouting at her,” McIvor said when interview at the subsequent accident at Kelly’s Corners, at Route 20 and 80.
“He banged his fist on her jeep and put a dent on the driver’s side. I called 911 when I saw that.”
Less than half an hour later, that man would be dead, the victim of a head-on collision following a high-speed chase that ended when his red Buick Lacrosse ran into an Otsego County Sheriff’s cruiser, injuring Deputy James Mateunas.
According to Trooper Aga Dembinska, Troop C spokesman, the man in a car who had been accused of harassing, then threatening a woman with a knife. When troopers approached, he fled and officers pursued him east on Route 20.
As the fleeing car approached Route 20’s intersection with 80, Mateunas’ cruisher was parked, facing west with its lights flashing. The fleeing man’s car ran head-on into the cruiser, Dembinska said.
Coroner Michael Fox pronounced the suspect dead at the scene.
