Junior critically injured in accident
A senior at Haldane High School was killed and a junior critically injured in a crash on Dec. 15, according to the school district and the New York State Police.
Vlad Saban, 17, died at the scene and Theresa Timmons, 16, was taken to Westchester Medical Center.
The state police said the crash occurred at 8 p.m. on Route 9 in the Town of Cortlandt, just south of Philipstown, when Saban, driving a 2012 Toyota Prius southbound, sideswiped a Subaru Forester while passing illegally on the right shoulder. Police said he lost control and the vehicle struck a utility pole and then a tree.
First responders from the Garrison and Continental Village fire departments, along with Peekskill EMS, found Timmons unresponsive in the rear of the vehicle.
“Haldane is a close-knit community and I know that our collective heart hurts for the families that have been impacted by this tragedy,” Superintendent Philip Benante wrote on Sunday (Dec. 17) in a letter to the community. “The Crisis Response Team met this morning to develop a plan for supporting our students and staff members in the days ahead.”
Students and staff members were invited to gather later that day at the school to “support one another and to express their support for the Saban and Timmons families,” Benante said.
According to an obituary posted by Clinton Funeral Home in Cold Spring, Saban was the son of Liliya Shylivska and Sergiy Saban and spent his summers in Ukraine visiting his extended family. He was fluent in Ukrainian and English and a member of St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Campbell Hall, where he served as an altar boy.
Timmons is the daughter of Laura Timmons, the co-owner of the Homestyle bakery in Nelsonville; the teenager is familiar to many as a server at its ice-cream shop. Her mother said online on Wednesday that she is in a coma with a severe brain injury.
Online campaigns have been launched to assist the Saban and Timmons families.
My heart and my spirit go out to Vlad and Teresa’s family and friends. I know people who personally know each of them and this is hard for them as well. In this type of mourning and the special time of year, I pray that we lift one another up in love and the light of God that is in every man.
The light outshines the darkness all the time. I am saddened that this can be a very dark time for those who are mourning, and there is no peace that I can offer to you other than to keep your faith and hope in a higher power. That can be a friend, or neighbor, that can be an assembly, that can be God. Just know that you are not alone in this.
This is one of the greatest communities I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing and being a part of, please remember to use the support that is available all around you.