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THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2009   
Vol 2.26   
Gutter
Crash and Serious Injury Mar Rally New York Event

WAWARSING � This past weekend's New York Road Rally event saw an ugly car crash, which led to the car's two occupants being hospitalized. On Saturday, at about 10:45 a.m., while driving his modified 1985 Volkswagon Golf, Mark Lawrence, of South Orange, New Jersey, incorrectly negotiated a turn on Rogue's Harbor Road, crashing into a tree on the passenger's side.

Lawrence was taken to the Ellenville Regional Hospital and treated for a fractured collar bone, while the passenger, Lawrence's navigator, Eamonn Sweeney, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was unconscious, and seemed to suffer internal head injuries and was airlifted to Westchester Medical Center according to standard protocols. According to reports, Sweeney was placed in an induced coma while he was being treated. As of Monday, he had regained consciousness and diagnosed with simply a sprained knee, according to Rich Otis, a representative of Rally New York.

"It looked more serious than it was at the scene," said Otis of the diagnosis. "I'm not a paramedic, but it's been explained to me by several paramedics that it's standard protocol, if a patient has been unconscious, and a paramedic treats them, they pretty much have to do the MedEvac thing. It's just a protocol thing."

"Based on the damage to the vehicle, we flew out of precaution to Westchester," said John Gavaris, chief operating officer of the Ellenville Rescue Squad, who responded to the scene that morning. An experienced EMT, Gavaris is often on standby at the Accord Speedway during their races, and said that oftentimes the damage done to racing and rally cars isn't as indicative of damage done to the occupants as it would be in civilian cars.

"I watch these cars flip twenty feet in the air, roll around on the floor, and the people walk out and there's not a scratch on them. They're meant to absorb impact; they're meant to crash. They have roll cages and everything else," he said. "Looking at those vehicles, it's very hard to judge how bad an injury is going to be, because of all the safety features that they hold� They wear so much safety gear and everything else, it's just hard for us to judge that kind of thing. So out of precaution, we'll always err on the side of caution versus taking the chance and just sending them to Ellenville [Regional Hospital], and then it turns out something worse happened."

"Injuries are very rare. There are racing accidents � people run off the road occasionally. These cars are expensive, it's not the goal. Nobody takes their $60,000 car out and says, 'Hey, I'm going to run it into a tree,'" said Otis, who was acting as the clerk of the course for the day's race, New York Rally Championship, Summer Rally Sprint 2009. The race took place on Rogue's Harbor Road as part of the event's gravel portion.

"It's a good, family sport," continued Otis, "and so far most of the people in the Ellenville area that I've talked to really enjoy it. They really do. Except one or two, and they're always going to be the vocal ones, you know?" He said that the participants in the event rented 37 rooms in the Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson, proof of how the event positively affects the economy of the area.

However, one resident, who falls squarely into Otis's vocal opposition camp, isn't so pleased about the Road Rally.

"I thought the guy died right there, to be honest with you," said Rich Robbins, a caretaker at a property on Rogue's Harbor Road, who claims he was the first one on the scene after hearing the car crash from about a hundred feet away.

"There was nobody on-scene; I was the only one there. I had to call 911. I had to help the driver out [of the car]. I had to stop two cars; otherwise they would've slammed right into this guy."

In addition to his safety concerns, Robbins also said the rally's presence is "a total inconvenience."

"These guys came here at, like, 7:30 in the morning, and were practicing up and down the road. So basically, we couldn't even go on the road. They didn't close the road at 7:30 in the morning, but, I mean, I couldn't go out there to walk the dogs or anything like that," he said.

Despite the vocal opponents to the rally such as Robbins, Otis stressed the quick response time of medical and law enforcement personnel, as well as rally employees and volunteers, praising them for their efforts.

"Everybody did a great job, all the volunteers, all the safety procedures worked perfectly. The medical was there�you couldn't have asked for a better scenario as far as getting people there," he said.





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