Act of heroism

Town of Marlborough employees receive state’s highest honors

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 12/30/20

State Senator James Skoufis (D-Woodbury) honored members of the Marlborough Police and Highway Departments with Liberty Medals for their heroism after a fuel truck overturned on Route 9W, just south …

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Act of heroism

Town of Marlborough employees receive state’s highest honors

Posted

State Senator James Skoufis (D-Woodbury) honored members of the Marlborough Police and Highway Departments with Liberty Medals for their heroism after a fuel truck overturned on Route 9W, just south of the highway department, blocking both northbound lanes. Their quick actions saved the trapped driver from serious injury and prevented leaking fuel from spilling into a nearby creek. The back wheel of the rig got caught in a rut, causing it to flip over. The cleanup took about 8 hours to complete.

The accident happened on July 10, 2019 but honoring those who were involved was delayed due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

Skoufis began his remarks inside the highway garage by pointing out that, “on a normal day the work that the gentleman behind me and their colleagues do is unsung, heroic work.”

Skoufis said the accident, “really tested these guys; they went above and beyond and they performed true acts of heroism. We are here because these are the first Liberty Medals that I am giving out as a state Senator and it’s not a coincidence that it’s going to these fine gentlemen behind me. These are the highest civilian awards granted by New York State. They are nominated by me but it goes through a months long review process and are signed off by a number of people, including the Senate Majority Leader herself [Andrea Stewart-Cousins]. Very, very few of these are awarded and I am privileged to give them out.”

Skoufis said when the accident happened, Highway Superintendent John Alonge and his crew, “sprang into action.” Police Chief Gerald Cocozza arrived and climbed up a 12 foot ladder to help Don Fredrick move the driver out of his cab and into a front end loader that lowered him to safety. As this was happening the highway crew began dumping tremendous amounts of sand to form a dike that protected a small bordering stream from more than 1,000 gallons of leaking fuel. The fire department arrived on the scene and worked with the Highway Department to take care of the fuel leak.

“As all this was going on, at any moment given that this was a fuel truck, there was a very real and present danger that an explosion and serious harm could occur to the men on the site,” he said. “Thanks to them, however, a life was saved and what could have been a crisis was averted. We are here to honor these five gentlemen and to acknowledge their heroism. This was supposed to happen a very long time ago at the start of this year but then covid hit. This is somewhat overdue but better late than never. I am very glad and honored to be presenting these awards to them.”

Supervisor Al Lanzetta commended these town employees for their actions on that challenging day.

“When the need arose the members of our community didn’t hesitate. The Town of Marlborough can rest assured knowing that people that make up our Highway Department, our Police Department and our volunteer First Responders showed the courage and ability we can count on. We are truly grateful for their service and we want to thank them and I thank them personally from the bottom of my heart. The people of the Town of Marlborough are very proud of these gentlemen.”

Chief Cocozza said receiving the Liberty Medal, “is an honor and a privilege and I feel very good about it.”

John Alonge recalled that the sound of the truck flipping over and sliding down the road, “was something we never heard so as soon as we saw this we all just sprang into action. I want to thank my guys along with the Marlborough Police Department and both Fire Departments and we were able to stop this tragedy.”