WGXC-90.7 FM
Prison guard killed in Thruway accident
Jan 31, 2011 9:16 am
What had first looked like a story with deep narrative elements, the death of a state corrections officer killed Friday afternoon, January 28, in a two-car crash on the Thruway north of Kingston - with a convicted murderer in transport - has turned out to be a much more banal tragedy, the Daily Freeman reports this morning. The accident was caused by a driver taking her eyes off the road to adjust the heat in her car, a final state police press release said, who then drifted from the passing to the driving lane and struck the state prison van about 1:35 p.m. near mile marker 94.3 on the northbound side of the highway, just north of the Kingston exit, causing both vehicles to go off the right side of the road and down an embankment. The prison van overturned, killing the driver, Corrections Officer Casimiro Pomales, 52, of Kerhonkson, and injuring the two passengers — Corrections Officer John Minuck and inmate Ralph Ambert, who was being driven from the Eastern Correctional Facility in Napanoch to an eye doctor’s appointment in Albany. Neither Minuck nor Ambert, 40, who is serving a life sentence for murder, was seriously hurt.
Continued...
State police Investigator John Kelly said on Friday that the occupants of the car are from Warwick and that it did not appear the driver would be charged. Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered flags on state office buildings flown at half-staff late Friday in Pomales’ honor. Ambert is serving a life sentence for murder. 42 years ago, a correctional officer's death along the Thruway from a discharged firearm resulted in death sentences for two men, one of whom went on to marry a local newspaper editor while serving his sentence, then was granted clemency by then governor Mario Cuomo, the current governor's father. The case resulted in the rise and fall of several political careers, and was one of the region's top news stories for decades... which accounts for the added attention Friday's accident drew, because of several of its circumstances. The most recent CO's death reportedly resulted in the cancellation of a planned graduation ceremony at Eastern Correctional for participants in the Bard Prison Initiative because of Pomales long 22 year career history at the facility.
Continued...
State police Investigator John Kelly said on Friday that the occupants of the car are from Warwick and that it did not appear the driver would be charged. Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered flags on state office buildings flown at half-staff late Friday in Pomales’ honor. Ambert is serving a life sentence for murder. 42 years ago, a correctional officer's death along the Thruway from a discharged firearm resulted in death sentences for two men, one of whom went on to marry a local newspaper editor while serving his sentence, then was granted clemency by then governor Mario Cuomo, the current governor's father. The case resulted in the rise and fall of several political careers, and was one of the region's top news stories for decades... which accounts for the added attention Friday's accident drew, because of several of its circumstances. The most recent CO's death reportedly resulted in the cancellation of a planned graduation ceremony at Eastern Correctional for participants in the Bard Prison Initiative because of Pomales long 22 year career history at the facility.