Car found in Sullivan pond
אין ווארטסבארא, אין די מאונטענס
Car found in Sullivan pond
Judge Frank LaBuda helps with car submerged car
Wurtsboro – "No time to wait for a bathing suit," Sullivan County Judge Frank LaBuda said of his morning swim.
The county justice and volunteer Wurstboro firefighter was just getting on Route 17 on his way to trial in Monticello about 9 a.m. today when the call came over the scanner of a car under water at South and Big Valley Roads.
Expecting the worst when he showed up, LaBuda stripped off his suit and tie and leapt in. One of the first on the scene of a car's roof popping out of a muck-covered pond, he said, "you need to get in the water right away," in case someone was trapped.
A quick search turned up nothing. LaBuda and fellow Wurtsboro firefighter Tim Hughes, in a wetsuit, attached cables to pull the car out.
Turns out the car had run off the road into the pond around 1 a.m., state police said. Yerzhan Zhunussov, 21, who was driving the 92 Buick Century, didn't take the left turn on South Road so well; tire tracks show the car didn't turn sharply enough. The car scraped the guard rail, took out some purple loosestrife and came to a rest about 20 feet away in the pond, covered with green algae and lily pads.
The owner of the vehicle, Yuriy Prokhiy, 29, initially told state police he had no clue how the car got in the pond. He later admitted to sitting shotgun when the car went aquatic. Both men are staying at the Paradise Resorts camp on South Road, state police said.
In addition to two traffic violations, Zhunussov was charged with a misdemeanor for, according to state environmental conservation law, "depositing offensive materials in the waters of New York state."
LaBuda wasn't done yet. He headed home to shower and, "get the pond lilies out of my ears," and was back on the road. Again, the scanner chatter started, this time for a car fire on Route 17.
"Five minutes later I was directing traffic around the scene," he said.
He finally made it to the courthouse – in dry clothes.
Read more in tomorrow's edition of the Times Herald.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/08/18/1.htm
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