Hamptonburgh found at fault in deadly crash

GOSHEN — An Orange County jury has found the Town of Hamptonburgh at fault in the May 2010 crash that killed Salvatore Traina of Walden.

The verdict, reached Thursday afternoon in Orange County state Supreme Court following a two-week trial, found the town liable for Traina's death at the intersection of Route 207, Egbertson Road and Kiernan Road.

Traina, 61, was riding a motorcycle on Route 207 when a car driven by a Campbell Hall man pulled out of Kiernan Road and struck him.

The lawyer for Traina's estate, Patrick Owen, said the town had been put on notice in 1981 and 1982 about the dangerousness of the intersection. Owen said during the approval process for the Doane's Nursing Home project, the Town of Hamptonburgh applied to the state for permission to move the Kiernan Road intersection because of the hazards but never did the relocation.

"Here's six people (on the jury) who said it should have been moved, and it cause his death," Owen said. "Hopefully, now the town will move that road."

Owen said he started digging into the background of the intersection because Traina's case was the second in three years that he, a small practitioner, had gotten because of a crash at the same spot.

The town's lawyer in the case, Malcolm Stewart of Gambeski & Frum in Elmsford, wasn't available for comment Friday. Calls to the offices of Hamptonburgh Supervisor Robert Jankowski and town attorney David Donovan also were not returned Friday.

A new jury will be chosen July 25 for the trial's damages phase.