DUANESBURG — A Mohawk Ambulance went off Route 20 in the early evening of Wednesday, May 24, killing its passenger and sending the driver and a technician to the hospital.
The patient’s name, according to many reports, is 64-year-old Chris Aernecke, of Sloansville. He was being transported home from the hospital by the ambulance.

The technician, 19-year-old Alyssa Bevilacqua-Shufelt, is a volunteer with the Elsmere Fire Department. She was taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital for treatment of non-life theatening injuries. The driver, 20-year-old Cody Bryans, was taken to Ellis Hospital.
“Things are as good as can be expected,” said Elsmere Fire Chief Frank Wickham of Bevilacqua-Schufelt. “Emergency services are pretty tight-knit group and we are hoping for a speedy recovery.”
She joined Elsmere in February, 2014 through the Explorers Program, which is designed to get high school students involved in volunteer emergency services.
Wickham said she was recently honored for her high level of participation. Not only to recognize the number of calls she answered, but she also for completing the state Firefighter I course – the basic requirement to become a volunteer – and opting to get certified in hazardous material contamination and as an emergency medical technician.
Her employment at Mohawk Ambulance was separate and distinct from her volunteer work at Elsmere.
“On behalf of Mohawk Ambulance Service and all of our employees, I would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the family in this very difficult time,” said James P. McPartlon III, president of the Schenectady-based Mohawk Ambulance Service. “We are working in full cooperation with law enforcement and together our agencies are investigating what happened surrounding this terrible event.”
The Schenectady County Sheriff’s Department is the lead investigatory agency.
More information as it becomes available.
Photos by Tom Heffernan Sr.