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09/28/09
Columbia County Sheriff's Office Press Release
Stockport,NY
Columbia
County Sheriff David Harrison Jr. reports that Deputy Sheriff's are investigating a fatal automobile accident that occured on
Southers Road in the Town of Stockport. Columbia County 911 assigned Deputy Sheriff's Michael Stelling and Jeffrey Hofstetter
at 11:12pm last evening to the accident that was approximately one half mile north of Station Road.
Pronounced
dead at the scene by Columbia County Coroner Angelo Nero was 16 year old Nicholas P. VanBenschoten of Columbiaville, NY.
VanBenschoten was operating a 2001 Daewoo with a learners permit that he had obtained only ten days ago. He was northwest
bound on Southers Road traveling at an excessive speed when he left the north shoulder of the roadway, struck a culvert and
became airpborne crashing into a large stone pillar at the entrance of a private residential driveway. The impact with the
stone pillar was with the drivers door.
There were two rear seat passengers, 17 year old Allison Shaw of Balsam
Road, Valatie and 17 year old Jeff Beaulieu of County Route 25 Stuyvesant Falls, NY. VanBenschoten and Shaw were wearing their
seatbelts. Shaw was transported to the Albany Medical Center by the Greenport Rescue Squad in stable condition and Beaulieu
was airlifted to AMC and was reported to be in critical condition.
The Stockport Fire Company and the Sheriff's
Office Incident Scene Investigation Unit also responded to the scene.
Sheriff Harrison said an autopsy is scheduled
to be preformed on Mr. VanBenschoten and the investigation is continuing by Sheriff's Investigators and Columbia County
Coroner Angelo Nero.
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Units on scene-
Stockport Fire Company
Greenport Rescue
Valatie Rescue
LifeNet 71
Columbia County Sheriff's
Department
New York State Police
Coroner Angelo Nero
EMS Coordinator PJ Keeler
The 2001 Daewoo as it sits in the Columbia
County Sheriff's Department impound yard.
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