A Gouverneur woman is asking a judge to order Jefferson County to release records pertaining to an accident involving a Fort Drum ambulance in which her mother was killed and she was seriously injured.
Carol A. Durham filed a state Supreme Court petition Wednesday at the county clerk’s office against county Administrator Robert F. Hagemann, as the county’s records access officer, and Legislature Chairman Kenneth D. Blankenbush as its records access appeal officer.
Mrs. Durham’s mother, Marjorie M. Swem, 88, was killed April 24 when a pickup truck in which she was a passenger collided with a Fort Drum ambulance on Route 11 in the town of LeRay. The ambulance was about to transfer a patient to a Philadelphia ambulance when the accident occurred. Mrs. Durham and two people in the ambulance were also injured.
According to court documents filed on behalf of Mrs. Durham by attorney William R. Heitz, Victor, Mrs. Durham is "in the process of investigating a civil suit" stemming from the crash. It is alleged that the ambulance involved made a U-turn in front of the Durham vehicle without its emergency lights or siren activated and there may be some liability stemming from the claimed negligence.
A sheriff’s detective investigated the accident and determined that the ambulance had its lights and sirens on and did not charge the driver with a crime or otherwise issue any citations. Additional investigation was then turned over to Fort Drum, according to the petition.
It is claimed in the petition, however, that a passenger in the ambulance, a Fort Drum employee, reported that the ambulance had turned off its lights and siren just before it made the U-turn that contributed to the accident.
Mrs. Durham initially filed a Freedom of Information Law request with Mr. Hagemann. Among other things, she had asked for 911 emergency dispatch records involving the initial ambulance call to Fort Drum and the subsequent call to the Philadelphia ambulance. She also asked for 911 calls made after the crash and for records of calls between the two ambulances.
Among other things, she also asked for the training history of the detective who conducted the accident reconstruction investigation and for a copy of the report of that investigation. She also asked for all other records the county may have regarding the accident.
Mr. Hagemann denied the request as being too broad. Upon appeal to Mr. Blankenbush, the request for 911 tapes was denied again, as the county argues that their release would be in violation of state law, according to a letter from Mr. Blankenbush to Mr. Heitz filed with the petition.
Robert J. Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, said Wednesday that while his organization disagrees with the law forbidding disclosure of 911 tapes under state County Law, section 308, and is working to have it repealed, the county is correct in its interpretation of the current law.
"In a nutshell, it forbids disclosure," he said.
The request for the detective’s personnel records was also denied as confidential and not subject to disclosure without consent of the detective or by court order. The county did provide the accident reconstruction and witnesses’ reports. The request for all other, nonspecific, documents was again denied as being too broad.
