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 A 91-year-old Van Buren woman died Thursday when her car slid off the south shoulder of county Route 12 in Schroeppel, Oswego County, and became submerged in the Oneida River, state police said. Henrietta M. Otter, of 1092 Lynch Road, was eastbound on Route 12. She was on her way to her daughter’s home in Hastings at 1:30 p.m. Thanksgiving Day when she lost control of her 1996 Buick on a sharp curve in the narrow road. Several neighbors and passers-by tried in vain to save the woman, but the cold weather and water were too much. Otter was removed from the submerged vehicle by an unidentified, uniformed Oswego County sheriff’s deputy who jumped in the water, according to witnesses. Otter was taken to A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital in Fulton, where she was pronounced dead, troopers said. Weather may have been a contributing factor in the crash, said state police Lt. Jerome Pristash. There were early afternoon squalls in the area. The accident site is the same as that of a fatal crash April 6, 2002, when a car went off the curve and landed upside down in about 10 feet of water. A passenger in that car, Joshua D. Green, 20, of Hastings, was killed. The driver, James Brown, of Hastings, escaped. Brown later pleaded guilty to drunken driving. In 2004, Green’s family launched an investigation into whether Oswego County was partially to blame for the crash. They were looking into filing a lawsuit at that time. Residents of that stretch of county Route 12 Thursday night said they’re upset the county has not put up guardrails along the curve. "Maybe this will wake them up," said Wayne Jones, who lives directly across the street from where Otter’s car entered the river. "That spot is wide open. There’s no bank there. It’s going to happen again unless they put something up." Green’s family erected a memorial cross at the site after his death. It was gone Thursday after crews pulled Otter’s car from the river, Jones said. Bridge work was completed just west of Thursday’s accident site this summer, Jones said, but the county did not extend guardrails along the curve. Jones said he and his neighbors, the DeBarr family, initially spotted Otter’s car in the river and tried to help by supplying rope and tools. The car drifted about 50 feet before it went under water, troopers said. One man, who happened to be passing by and stopped, tried to get to the car in a row boat with a neighbor before firefighters and emergency workers arrived. One jumped into the water, hoping to rescue the woman, but because of cold water temperature, he had to give up, Jones said. Initially, troopers received conflicting information from witnesses. Some thought there might have been one or two additional people in the car, troopers said. A search was conducted by Phoenix firefighters, divers from the Brewerton Fire Department and Oswego County Sheriff’s deputies. By day’s end, troopers concluded Otter was alone. Jones said it took two wreckers to get the car out of the river. Police had the road blocked off for about five hours. Edward Otter, of Port Byron, is Henrietta Otter’s grandson. He said his grandmother always had a tidy house and was a great cook. She also passed the time gardening and tending her birds, he said. "She was a home person," he said. "She raised lots of birds, like parrots and cockatiels. She mostly stayed with her birds." He said many of the parrots were talkers. "She did this for about the last 15 years. They were pretty good parrots." Otter said his grandmother lived in the Baldwinsville area most of her life. She had two children, Jane Scott, who she was driving to see in Hastings, and his father, Edward. Henrietta Otter’s husband, also named Edward, died in the 1950s, her grandson said. "It’s unbelievable," Otter said about his grandmother’s death. "It was pretty nasty out there today." Otter said he knows the area on county Route 12 where his grandmother’s car left the road. "I’m familiar with it, and I have sisters who live in that area," he said. "I’m surprised there’s not a guardrail there." Oswego County Sheriff Reuel Todd said he is aware of other accidents at that curve, which he said years ago was called "Big Bend." "People drive that road all the time and nothing happens," he said. "Usually when something happens there, it’s the weather or alcohol-related." Two families mourn deaths at curve Memorials for Henrietta Otter, Joshua Green line road in Oswego County. Saturday, November 26, 2005 By Douglass Dowty Staff writer A harrowing curve along the Oneida River where two lives were taken in less than four years including 91-year-old Henrietta M. Otter on Thanksgiving Day bore fresh memorials Friday from families of each victim. Though seven decades separated Otter, a great-great grandmother from Van Buren, and Joshua D. Green, 20, of Hastings, their families felt a similar pain this Thanksgiving. Otter lost control of her car on county Route 12 in Schroeppel, Oswego County, Thursday at the same point the vehicle Green was in left the road 3 years ago. Her 1996 Buick left tracks in the grass next to a fallen cross erected in Green's honor along the road's shoulder. On Friday, Green's father, Dennis, said he felt the Otters' grief. "One little slip, you're gone. There's no trees or anything and it drops off 10 feet," Dennis Green said. "My wife's very upset." Otter was on her way to her daughter Jane Scott's house in Hastings at 1:30 p.m. when the accident occurred. A uniformed Oswego County sheriff's deputy pulled Otter from the car after two passers-by were forced by cold water to halt their rescue attempts. Multiple generations of the Otter family placed roses at the spot for their relative early Friday afternoon. "Thanksgiving will never be the same" granddaughter Linda Otter said. She was accompanied great-grandchild Angel Otter and Matt Fratello and great-great-grandchild Bailey, 6. Joshua Green's mother Theresa, and his sister, Jenna, also stopped by the river Friday to resurrect his memorial cross. The day before, a neighbor believed the cross had disappeared. Green was a passenger in a car driven by James Brown, both of Hastings, when he was killed April 6, 2002. Brown's car went off the curve and landed upside down in 10 feet of water. Brown pleaded guilty to drunken driving. Dennis Green said another tragedy was only a matter of time after Joshua's death. "I knew it was going to happen again," he said. "They have to do something." Phoenix Enterprise Fire Co. fire chief Bob Kingsley said he planned to call the county's highway commission Monday morning about the road. "It's a very dangerous curve," he said. "On a scale of one to 10, it's a nine." Kingsley said there are 15 to 20 crashes every winter on this curve on Oswego county Route 12. He believes a guardrail along that stretch could have saved both Otter and Green. "It gets your blood pressure up," he said. "It would have been prevented if the guardrail was there." The Greens met with the county attorney in 2004 about the hazard after Joshua was killed, but "the county attorney told me I had no case," Dennis Green said. "What are you going to do? Just wait for the next one, I guess." Oswego County Sheriff's Department on Friday identified the sheriff's deputy who pulled Henrietta Otter from the river as road patrol officer Jeremy Plyler. Plyler, a deputy since 2002, is a 14 year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard. He is a reserve second-class boatsman, serving weekends and two weeks a year on duty, Petty Officer Geoff Beresford, a Coast Guard spokesperson said. Plyler was on duty Friday and declined to be interviewed. "He happened to be in the right place," said sheriff's department First Sgt. John Cox. "(His dedication) goes beyond anything I can describe." Lifesaving Resources Inc. - www.lifesaving.com - 603/563-8330 |
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