Motorcycle Accident Closes Route 23A

By Max Oppen

HAINES FALLS — A routine trip down the mountain turned into a multi-vehicle accident that closed state Route 23A in both directions for several hours on Monday evening.

Eyewitness Carl Giagrande, who was traveling with his wife, Kathleen, to a dentist appointment in Catskill, reported that the crash occurred around 5:30 p.m.

Giagrande was driving downhill behind a panel truck when the vehicle in front of him stopped abruptly. At the same time, a motorcyclist heading up the mountain clipped the front bumper of the panel truck. The impact sent the motorcyclist flying about twenty feet, landing near Giagrande’s car.

Fortunately, Giagrande and his wife were in the right place at the wrong time. Kathleen, a nurse at Columbia Memorial Hospital for over a decade and currently the school nurse at Hunter-Tannersville Elementary, quickly stepped into action.

“His leg was mangled and bent and had a puncture wound oozing blood,” Giagrande recalled. He immediately called 911, and the Town of Hunter EMS arrived within minutes. Giagrande, the code enforcement officer for the Town of Lexington, Jewett, and the Villages of Hunter and Tannersville, said the dispatcher instructed them to apply pressure to the wound.

Despite his injuries, the motorcyclist kept trying to move. Kathleen worked to keep him calm while tending to the wound. “She asked him who the President of the United States was,” Giagrande said. “He answered, ‘Zelenskyy,’” referring to the President of Ukraine—an apparent result of confusion and shock.

The motorcyclist was conscious and alert when he was taken by ambulance. His identity and current condition remain unknown.

The injured man's friend, who was riding another motorcycle nearby, was not hurt in the crash.

As for the Giagrandes, they missed their dentist appointment and were delayed heading home due to the road closure. “We ended up grabbing a pizza from Selena’s Diner,” Giagrande said..