Four killed in crash at border checkpoint (75 mi inside US Border)

[Cooley Hurd]

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=287136&category=STATE&newsdate=9/20/2004

NORTH HUDSON -- At least four people died when a tractor-trailer struck three vehicles waiting at a border patrol checkpoint on a remote stretch of Interstate 87 in the Adirondacks, police said.

The tractor-trailer struck a car and two pickup trucks, which burst into flames. State Police Maj. Peter Person of Troop B called the death toll tentative as emergency crews continued recovery efforts at the scene between exits 29 and 30, just north of the High Peaks rest area.

The accident occurred at the same place where a tour bus plowed into the back of a tractor-trailer and injured 55 people in February.

<snip>

The accident happened shortly after 2:30 p.m. when the tractor-trailer approached the checkpoint at a "rather high speed," Person said.

Border patrol agents rescued a woman who was a passenger in one of the burning pickup trucks, but the driver was killed, Person said. The woman was taken to Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vt.
</snip>

This checkpoint has been in place for a little less than a year and it's ill-placed - with the exception of a few signs placed less than a mile from it, it's invisible (on the far side of a crest of a hill) until you're practically upon it. Even though the article states the purpose of the checkpoint is to "detect illegal aliens & drugs," it's real purpose is to catch terrorists coming into the US from Quebec via I-87 - that purpose itself is weak, given that it's easy to circumvent by traveling on US Rt 9 around it.

It's another Homeland Security snafu. I feel safer... don't you? :eyes:

[RivetJoint]

1. Seems like another case

of a stupid driver...

[Cooley Hurd]

2. No, because, as I said, the checkpoint is ill-placed and pointless, anyway

I've usually circumvented it because I drive an unmarked service van and am regularly hassled because of it. And where they have it placed is dangerous - it's the second accident in 6 months they've had...