Town will include Route 85 as part of its State Stop-DWI initiative
SLINGERLANDS – After the second fatal head-on crash in 12 months, Bethlehem Town Supervisor David VanLuven penned a letter to the state Department of Transportation requesting a review of Route 85, from Blessing Road to the Albany City line.
The DOT’s response: there is no reason to change the speed or design of the road.
“In the most recently available three-year period from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2023, there were 38 reported crashes on the approximately one-mile stretch between the Blessing Road roundabout and the Albany City line. Of these crashes, 28 were animal-related (27 deer and one coyote),” the letter from DOT Regional Traffic Engineer Michael W. Fenley stated.
“None of the remaining crashes identified unsafe speed as a contributing factor.”
Fenley went on to explain that the two fatal crashes were caused by drivers charged with impairment from alcohol or drugs, noting that this is an enforcement issue rather than a design issue.
VanLuven disagreed that it is solely about speed.
“I look at this in terms of the number of fatal accidents in that section of road,” he said. “It is not the same as other roads in town, and we would like to look at enhancements to mitigate that.”
Although there is a disagreement with the DOT on the design, both parties agree on the need to reduce the number of impaired drivers. VanLuven said that the Bethlehem Police Department will include Route 85 as a targeted enforcement area in the coming years.
“Our police department will be including Route 85 in the state-funded Stop-DWI initiative,” he said. “Our officers will also continue to vigilantly patrol that area for impaired drivers, and we will continue to prosecute them.”
The town applies for and receives grants each year for initiatives within the town, including Stop-DWI. These state funds, distributed through counties, are aimed at reducing impaired driving, according to Deputy Chief James Rexford.
Two other sources also provide funding for this purpose: a High Visibility Engagement Campaign and Police Traffic Services (PTS) grants, both of which assist the department.
“The purpose of the PTS, in particular, is to reduce personal injury crashes and fatalities,” Rexford said. “The idea is to do targeted enforcement to reduce crashes.”
The grant requires the municipality to submit traffic data on three areas within its jurisdiction to be targeted. Currently, Bethlehem’s three areas are River Road, Route 9W in Glenmont, and Delaware Avenue.
When the department applies for the next round of funding in April 2025, they will change one of the areas of concern, with the new cycle beginning in October 2025.
“We are going to add Route 85 in place of Delaware Avenue,” Rexford said. “We can only target three areas.”
Both Rexford and VanLuven believe that implementing traffic-calming elements on Delaware Avenue should help reduce speeds and crashes on that stretch. Rexford added that while police are not stopping enforcement on Delaware Avenue, they will add more targeted roving patrols on Route 85.
The Road
Concern about Route 85 is not a new phenomenon for Bethlehem residents. While the DOT points out that, statistically, the road is relatively safe based on the last three years of crash data, people who live here remember the horrific number of fatal crashes.
There have been six fatal head-on crashes between Blessing Road and the Albany City line since 1982, and five of them have been linked to drug or alcohol impairment.
In 1982, a crash on the Albany side of the Thruway bridge claimed the life of 20-year-old Michele Martin of Glenmont. She was killed when a driver with a record of five DWI and speeding arrests swerved into the wrong lane of traffic and struck her car head-on.
The driver in that case became the first person convicted of manslaughter for driving drunk.
About 200 yards west of that scene was an August 1987 crash that caused the death of Kathleen Quinn. The 15-year-old, who would have entered 11th grade at Bethlehem Central High School, was riding in the back seat of her parent’s station wagon when the car was hit by an impaired driver. Her mother was severely injured but survived.
The driver, Deborah A. Moquin of Albany, had two prior alcohol-related convictions within five years of being charged in this incident.
Moquin reportedly passed another westbound vehicle before the merge but failed to return to the westbound lane as the Quinn car approached from the opposite direction. This was near the point where the road transitions from four lanes to two lanes over the Thruway bridge, the same area where the two most recent fatal crashes occurred.
On May 11, 2023, 17-year-old Michael Kleinke Jr. died after his car was hit by a Mercedes driven by Thomas McGrath of Slingerlands. The accident occurred about 200 feet west of the Thruway bridge.
McGrath crossed the center line and collided head-on with Kleinke’s vehicle, according to accident reports. McGrath was charged with manslaughter, assault, aggravated vehicular homicide, and driving while impaired by the combined influence of drugs—all felonies.
Fifty-one weeks later, on Wednesday morning, May 1, 2024, Selkirk resident Shawna Marzahl died when her SUV was hit by a Subaru WRX driven by Matthew Monthie of Clifton Park, who was speeding at over 100 mph.
Monthie was traveling west, crossed the center line, and crashed head-on into Marzahl. Monthie was charged with manslaughter, assault, aggravated vehicular homicide (all felonies), and three misdemeanors, including DWI and driving while impaired by the combined influence of drugs.
Both McGrath and Monthie have pled not guilty, and their cases are heading to trial in Albany County Court.
In February 1997, 25-year-old Charles Russo of Voorheesville was hit head-on by an impaired driver as he was on his way to work at the post office. He died the next day in the hospital. The driver, Christopher Mansfield of Saratoga Springs, had three prior DWI convictions within 10 years. This accident occurred near Blessing Road, about a mile from the Thruway bridge.
About 100 yards west of the Thruway bridge, a 91-year-old woman from Liverpool was hit head-on by a concrete truck on November 23, 2005.
The accident occurred as police were attending to a property damage incident on the eastbound side of the road. The cement truck partially pulled into the opposite lane to bypass the accident, and the woman, Jean Ann Raver, did not move over.
The truck rolled over the top of her car’s hood, trapping her. Raver was talking but remained trapped inside. She died a few weeks later from injuries sustained in the crash. Another vehicle also crashed into the front of the cement truck, but that driver survived.
There were no reports of intoxication and no criminal charges were filed in this crash.
