ROSENDALE >> Ulster County sheriff’s deputies investigating a one-car crash on DeWitt Mills Road encountered another vehicle speeding past the accident scene that ultimately led deputies on a high-speed chase, authorities aid Wednesday.
About 9:35 a.m. Tuesday, Robert Fezza Jr., 49, was injured after driving his 2001 Honda Odyssey off the road and striking a tree and rock embankment while eastbound on DeWitt Mills Road, according to a Sheriff’s Office press release. Deputies attributed the accident to driver fatigue and said Fezza suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Fezza was removed from the Odyssey by Bloomington Fire Department personnel and taken in a Mobile Life ambulance to the HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus in Kingston.
About 10 a.m., as deputies were wrapping up at the accident scene, a 2006 Honda Civic driven by Devin Judware, 19, of Port Ewen, sped past, causing a deputy to drive off the shoulder of the road to avoid a collision, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Judware fled, driving erratically, deputies said.
They said Judware’s car eventually became disabled when it sank into wet grass after driving through a parking lot on Hurley Avenue in Kingston,
Deputies determined he was driving under the influence of drugs, and they charged him with two misdemeanor counts each of reckless endangerment and reckless driving and with drunken driving, also a misdemeanor, the Sheriff’s Office said. Judware also was issued 16 traffic tickets.
Judware was arraigned in Esopus Town Court and sent to the Ulster County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.
