creek road

Press release:

Buckeye Partners will be performing maintenance on their pipeline on Creek Road in Batavia beginning Monday, May 23. The road will be closed from 7 a.m. to -5 p.m. and will be reopened every evening to regular traffic. The work is being performed on Creek Road just north of Dorman Road and will last approximately two weeks.

Lots of manure on the roadway has created a dangerous condition on Creek Road down to East Road in the area of Baskin Farm, Town of Batavia. Dispatch has received multiple calls on this. Sheriff's deputies are responding.

The driver of a car that was trying to pass another vehicle on Creek Road yesterday says the other driver sped up, preventing her from safely passing.

The driver being passed denies she sped up.

Both were issued citations following the two-car accident that cause one car -- the one being passed -- to fly off the roadway and overturn, pinning the driver's arm under the hood of the car.

Cindy Schwartz, 43, of Alexander, the driver of the car reportedly being passed, was taken by Mercy Flight to Strong Memorial Hospital where she's listed in satisfactory condition.

The other driver, 17-year-old Elizabeth Weber of Exchange Street in Attica, was uninjured.

Weber was northbound in a 2010 Kia SUV on Creek Road, according to Deputy Chad Minuto's report, when she attempted to pass a 2000 Chevy sedan driven by Schwartz.

According to Weber, Schwartz sped up.

Yesterday, at the scene, Minuto said there was an oncoming southbound vehicle that may have contributed to Weber's decision to try and get back into the northbound lane quickly.

When she did, her right rear fender clipped the left front fender of the Chevy sedan, sending it off the east shoulder and tumbling into a farm field.

A black Labrador was Schwartz's only passenger. The dog ran from the accident scene heading toward the woods far in the distance to the east. It was nowhere to be seen during accident operations and this morning dispatchers say they have no report of it being found.

The accident was reported at 6:48 p.m. and Town of Batavia fire responded to the accident along with Mercy EMS.

It took about 30 minutes for firefighters to extricate Schwartz. She was buckled in her seat, upside down in the vehicle with her arm outside the driver-side window and pinned under the roof the car. Firefighters used airbags to lift the vehicle so her arm could be freed.

Weber was cited under the vehicle code section 1122-a for allegedly returning to her lane of travel without reaching a safe distance from the overtaken vehicle and Schwartz was issued a citation for allegedly speeding up while being passed under section 1122-b.

Driving down Creek Road this evening, I saw something head of me in the road. As I got closer, I thought it might be a turtle and just about that time, a car coming from the opposite direction was stopping.

John Volpe jumped out of the car and scooped up the snapping turtle and carried it over to the side of the road.

Volpe then called his father and told him about the turtle, which he said had a slight deformity in its shell and might be a female.

He told his dad his location and said he would wait for him.

Volpe explained to me that he and his father often rescue turtles. He said they would take the turtle home, ensure she (or he) is healthy. If healthy, and a female, they would hold her until she laid her eggs, then release her back into the wild, then raise the babies.

"Turtles mean a lot to us," Volpe said, who is Native American.

When his father arrived, Mary Volpe jumped out of the minivan and grabbed the turtle's shell from behind and carried it over to a plastic carry-all.