Vermont State Police Log: Police investigate multi-car crashes

ADDISON COUNTY — Vermont State Police locally sorted out two multi-car crashes in which people were injured.

The first accident, this past Saturday, Aug. 24, at around 1:30 pm, took place in Shoreham on Route 22A near the Orwell-Shoreham town line. In a three-vehicle crash, two drivers were seriously injured, including the driver of a motorcycle.

Police report that Yildiz Ferhat, 47, of Bomoseen was driving a 2024 Subaru Legacy southbound on Route 22A when, for unknown reasons, his car entered the oncoming lane and struck the rear driver side door of a 2017 VW Golf driven by 19-year-old old Alexander Pulver of Rhinebeck, NY The VW crashed into a ditch off the northbound lane.

The Subaru continued southbound in the northbound lane, police said, and struck a 2020 Yamaha Tracer 900 motorcycle driven by Timothy Duggan, 55, of Granville, NY, who was traveling behind the VW. Dugan and his motorcycle crashed onto the shoulder of the northbound lane. Ferhat’s Subaru ended up crashing on a lawn off the northbound lane.

Ferhat was taken by life flight helicopter to UVM Medical Center for suspected serious injuries. An ambulance took Duggan to UVM Medical Center for suspected serious injuries.

In the VW, Pulver and a passenger were not injured.

The weather was described as clear and the road as dry. This section of Route 22A was closed for around two and a half hours.

State police was assisted on scene by the Addison County Sheriff’s Department, Middlebury Regional EMS, Shoreham First Response, the Shoreham Fire Department, and Life Net of New York.

The police investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information regarding the crash is asked to contact Trooper Gurwicz at the Vermont State Police barracks in New Haven at 802-388-4919.

The second bad accident happened on Sunday, Aug. 25, just before 10 am State police were called to a two-car collision with injuries on Route 7 just north of Route 22A in Ferrisburgh. Police report that 78-year-old Diane J. Barrows of Vergennes in a 2016 Chevy TRX was attempting to make a left turn into a driveway at the same time a 2017 VW GTI driven by 30-year-old Genavieve L. Twomey of Burlington was traveling southbound on Route 7. The two cars collided on the shoulder of the southbound lane; both vehicles sustained substantial front-end damage.

Vergennes Area Rescue Squad took both drivers to Porter Hospital to receive treatment for their injuries, which troopers characterized as minor.

Meanwhile, state police and the Vergennes Fire Department responded to a report of a one-car crash on Basin Harbor Road near Kellogg Bay Road in Panton on Aug. 21 at around 3:30 am Driver Vincent Delacruz Rodriguez, 27, of Northfield was not injured when his vehicle left the road on a straightaway between Button Bay and Kellogg Bay roads. Police cited Rodriguez for driving under the influence.