
Southampton Town Police have released the names of the drivers of the Hampton Jitney bus and the garbage truck that collided Monday morning on County Road 39 in Southampton.
Ezio Vessella, the 45-year-old driver of the garbage truck, was taken by Medevac to Stony Brook University Hospital where he was treated for what authorities called non-life-threatening injuries.
The bus driver, Quincy Laffiter, 53, of Centeral Islip, was taken to Southampton Hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries and released. He was the only person on the bus at the time of the accident.
Previous reports that the garbage truck involved belonged to Winters Brothers Waste Services were incorrect as the vehicle belongs to the Bay Shore-based National Waste Service.
The garbage truck, which was heading westbound on County Road 39, hit the bus at 4:37 a.m. as it was pulling out of the Hampton Jitney parking lot near the David Whites Lane intersection to head east, Southampton Town Police Detective Sergeant Lisa Costa said.
No criminal charges were expected to be filed, Sgt. Costa said.
The road was officially reopened at 9:11 a.m. Other responding agencies included the Suffolk County Police Motor Carrier Unit, the Southampton Village Police and the Suffolk County Department of Public Works, among others.
All traffic lanes are open on County Road 39 following a non-lethal motor vehicle accident near the intersection with David Whites Lane this morning.
An emergency worker on the scene identified the dump truck involved in a non-lethal crash with a Hampton Jitney bus Monday morning on County Road 39 as a Winters Brothers garbage truck. The worker also said there appeared to be no passengers on the bus at the time of the crash.
According to the worker, the accident occurred near the Hampton Jitney office near the intersection of the highway and David Whites Lane. The metal forks used to hoist dumpsters penetrated the side of the bus, the worker said.
Representatives of Progressive Waste Solutions, formerly Winters Brothers, were not immediately available for comment.
For the second time in less than a week, an accident involving a Hampton Jitney bus closed part of County Road 39 early Monday morning.
This time, the crash occurred at 4:37 a.m. at the intersection with David Whites Lane when a dump truck crashed into a Jitney, Town Police said. Two people suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the crash; one was taken to Southampton Hospital for treatment, and the other was flown by Medevac helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital.
That section of County Road 39 remains closed to all traffic as of 8:30 a.m. while the crash is investigated. The road is expected to reopen soon.
Give it a break Nature, you are asking too much for a local paper with limited financial resources IMO. If you can do better, please start your own website. Really . . .
PS -- How can you be so impatient to type, when you expect drivers on 39a to throttle back their impatience?
And no, I'm not asking too much. All it takes is someone to listen to the police scanner and make a post on their website - or have the police contact them when a major roadway is closed down and have someone post it on the website. Did it need to be posted at 4:30 AM? No, but you're telling me NO ONE at the paper could post something until 8:44?
It was early on a Monday morning just after a July weekend. The reporters and editors have lives to live, too, you know? Some are probably on vacation.
If you can do better, do it!
Did you tune in to WLNG during all of this personal urgency BTW.
PS -- Perhaps you need to re-read the PS with MORE PATIENCE? I think you can connect the dots.
As Mr. Z said in the other article with his very cogent post:
ADAPT!
If you would like his words posted here verbatim, please advise.
"in case you need to be reminded, the world does not owe you anything". When did I ask for anything? Or State the world did? I asked a simple question which was, "Can we agree there's room for improvement?" I didn't accuse anyone of anything - just asked a question.
As Metsfan so eloquently points out at the bottom of this thread - the Press is in the ...more business of delivering news. News doesn't conform to the 9-5. The reason why I think 27east should notify readers is because there are a lot of readers who depend on mtk/CR 39 in the morning. If they get the message out, it could save a lot of people (i.e. their customers) a headache.
What's the point of being a newspaper/news site if you aren't going to, well, report the news?
And lastly, I do not need to do better - because I don't masquerade as a newspaper.
PS -- If another poster is being impatient and unreasonalbe, it is not "ad hominem" to point this out. Please look up the term.
BTW - what good is "breaking news" when it's 4 hours old and everyone's already on the roads?
Also, where's the evidence that they jitney was "yet again" driving aggressively? Last weeks accident involved a driver crossing into the wrong lane. This accident has no information ...more to provide you with an assumption?
And trust me they don't care what you think...
Chief knows everything and absolutely nothing at the same time.
safety? Every available local policeman should have helped inform drivers of the
situation and direct them to alternate routes. In addition, there just has to be a plan
to move crashed vehicles off the road faster. Somebody needs to make a plan and a protocol and start helping those of us who live here. Accidents happen but the aftermath seems to be a real problem that could be ameliorated. Who is ...more going to pick up the ball and run with it?
PS -- BTW today marks the 54th week since Sister Walsh was mowed down and left to die on the side of the road, without any recent public statements by the authorities. Rest in Peace.
The Press does a much better job IMO than any other East End publication, including the Patch sites which are financed (at a great loss) by aol. BTW have you noticed that the Patch sites have been throttled back in terms of breaking news?
Your comments about the SHT and Village PD are well taken, and the Supervisor and the Mayor should ...more LEAD here IMO.
And as Mr. Z said, ADAPT!
PS -- If you can do better than the Press, perhaps you and Nature should open up your own website for breaking news?
And I'd argue that it's not a minor issue of "traffic" or that people are unhappy with the "notification system". I think the issue is that twice in a week's time, one of two major thoroughfares has been shut down during the morning commute. This causes severe traffic problems and can have serious ramifications if other emergencies in the area occur (think police/fire/ambulance ...more traffic).
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for the course correction.
And, people blow past me...
And how come the police can use temp summer employees in the villages to issue traffic tickets but can't use those temp employees to reroute traffic?
1. The bus driver had to make a judgement about how much time he needed to pull out and cross one lane of oncoming traffic and clear a very large vehicle from that lane and at least be in the center lane or hopefully the east bound lane before being hit. If oncoming vehicles are travelling at the 35 mph speed limit they are travelling about 50 feet/second and if the bus driver estimated 10 seconds to clear the lane (that seems very quick to me) the ...more approaching vehicle would be about 500 feet away when he pulled out. If the oncoming vehicle in this case, say was going 55 mph, then he would be covering about 80 feet/second and he would cover the 500 feet in about 6.5 seconds rather than 10 seconds. Since the Bus was hit in the front the garbage truck was either going much faster than 55 mph or the bus driver just cut it way too close. The mathematical reality here is that the bus needs a factor of safety and he needs too add 50% to his best guess at how much time he has to clear the lane in order to account for speed variations that are reasonable to expect from oncoming traffic. Police don't expect any charges??? Really? Someone was at error!
2. Why are so many people medevaced with non life threatening injuries. Why bother having a hospital with an ER 1/3 of a mile away if you're going to fly patients to Stony Brook?
3. How come they can clear Sunrise or the LIE in mid Suffolk after a fatal collision in just a few, vs. 9 hours?
These are honest questions I do not mean to be sarcastic...
The other Jitney crash involved a vehicle hitting it after crossing traffic lanes. I get you don't like the Jitney - but truthiness and lies aren't much different
-- truck headlight status (vs. time of day darkness at 4:37 AM EDT)
-- truck's speed
-- truck's route (from 39a to the east or David White's Lane)
-- truck driver's sobriety/driving record/vision/etc. (could he have stopped?)
-- ditto for Jitney "facts"
Since you were at the scene, please tell us what you saw.
Thank you.
Part of me for guessing that they did show up...
Using your theory that is entire possible. You never cease to amaze wit the crap you make up.
How detailed is the data in the black boxes?
Just sayin' . . . fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice . . ...more .
You can apologize whenever you like Blank.
If you did not witness, the accident, wouldn't you say your conclusion about causation is a bit premature?
Thank you.
If as you claim, the buses are equipped with tracking devices; and if as you claim the buses are monitored; and if as you claim the Jitneys are always speeding and behaving in a generally unacceptable manner, just what purpose does the monitoring serve? If Hampton Jitney is aware that their buses are violating traffic laws, and if said behavior continues, your "friend who is a ...more driver" should know he can do as he pleases as it appears, in your world anyway, that those bus drivers are never admonished for bad driving, as it appears they continue to do as they please.
That scenario, like many of your postings, makes no sense whatsoever.
Kepp holding your breath, I'll get back to you in a day or so.
Auditing all black boxes of a companie's vehicles (including ones that weren't involved in accidents) is totally different and would likely be an unlawful search and seizure. Additionally, what would be the point? So let's say the black boxes of all busses showed they'd exceeded ...more 55mph. The drivers can't be ticketed because no one witnessed the alleged violations. Again, if someone was suing the Jitney and claiming that they have a history of aggressive driving and speeding - a subpeona could possibly be issued to retrieve that data but otherwise it's my guess that it would never happen.
"Who is in charge?"
Bring on the November Ejections . . .
PS - SLOW DOWN