Worcester mom recounts harrowing I-88 wreck

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August 14, 2012

Worcester mom recounts harrowing I-88 wreck

By JOE MAHONEY Staff Writer The Daily Star Tue Aug 14, 2012, 09:13 AM EDT

Usually, Wilma Travis of Worcester said she goes shopping with her daughter, Crescent Ives. But Sunday morning, Travis stayed at her home while her granddaughter, 15-year-old Kilee Ives, and Crescent Ives, the girl's mother, went for what was planned as a quick stop at the Walmart store in Cobleskill.

Driving her 2011 Kia sedan into Richmondville on the return trip home, Crescent Ives, 36, had to react in a split-second to something almost unimaginable: A tractor-trailer, engulfed in flames, was careening towards them after driving off an overpass on nearby Interstate 88, Wilma Travis said.

Crescent Ives, faced with no good options, could not avoid striking the tractor-trailer, her mother said.

"She tried to swerve to the right to avoid it," Travis said. "If she had swerved to the left, maybe they wouldn't have gotten hurt so bad. But then they might have hit oncoming traffic."

On Monday, both Crescent and Kilee Ives, also residents of Worcester, were being treated at Westchester Medical Center, where they had been airlifted Sunday afternoon by state police Medivac helicopters.

Kilee Ives was in the intensive care unit with serious burns on much of her face, body and throat, her grandmother said. Crescent Ives was being treated in the burn unit for burns to both arms and legs, Travis said.

The tractor-trailer driver, whose identity was being withheld by police Monday pending completion of autopsy tests, was killed in the accident.

Travis said her daughter, employed at Asbury's Gardens in Oneonta, and granddaughter, a student at Worcester High School, managed to climb out of the crumpled Kia on their own, but were immediately met by a ball of flames, which had spread to the car after it came into contact with a burning side of the trailer.

"When they got out of the car, it was just a complete fireball, and that's why they got burned so badly," she said.

Travis, who recently had knee replacement surgery and was unable to drive to the Westchester hospital, said she spoke briefly by telephone with her daughter Monday.

"She remembers seeing the truck coming down at them," she said. "She said she had a terrible night in the hospital and kept waking up screaming: 'The truck is coming! The truck is coming!'"

She said her granddaughter was breathing with the aid of a ventilator and was unable to speak. When Kilee's 18-year-old brother, Stephan Ives, went to the hospital to visit her, he broke down crying, Travis said.

Later, after Kilee regained consciousness, "She wrote in the air with her hand: 'How is Steph doing?'" the grandmother said.

Crescent Ives' husband, Ryan Ives, employed at an Oneonta welding shop, was maintaining a vigil at the hospital with his wife and daughter, Travis said.

What caused the tractor-trailer to burst into flames and go off the highway remained unknown, said trooper Mark Cepiel, spokesman for Troop G, Loudonville. He said collision reconstruction investigators were teaming up with members of the commercial vehicle unit in the hunt for answers as to what caused the truck to burst into flames.

Cepiel said the truck was transporting rolls of paper. The driver was not from the region, he confirmed, declining to release any further information.

In Worcester, Travis was getting updates from her son-in-law. She said she was hoping they could take her granddaughter off the ventilator.

"This is a tragic, tragic accident, and I personally grieve for the driver of the truck, as well as my daughter and granddaughter," Travis said. "We're saying prayers for all who were involved as well as their families. We still don't know what caused the accident or why the truck caught on fire. I'm sure it was not something the truck driver intentionally did. He lost his life, and that's a tragedy."

She said she was taking some consolation in the fact that the Westchester hospital's burn unit has an excellent reputation for the care it provides.

Schoharie County Sheriff Tony Desmond, with 31 years of local law enforcement experience, including 28½ years as a state trooper, said it was the first time to his knowledge that a truck had crashed onto Route 7 after driving off Interstate 88.

"It was just the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.