At first glance, it looks like a Valentine. A red heart on the side of Route 209 in Marbletown. This handmade roadside memorial marks just one of the many deaths which have occurred on Route 209 along its route from Hurley to Ellenville and beyond.

From Hurley to Mamakating, State Route 209 is a challenge for local governments seeking to cut down on a seemingly endless stream of crashes. Pitted with potholes, punctuated with intersections that seem to come upon drivers by terrible surprise, the highway has a body count that is alarming for the area.

This past Labor Day, September 1, the road claimed two lives within 40 minutes, several miles apart. A head-on crash in Hurley crushed 25-year-old Sierra Fatima Koren Thornton of Middletown in the passenger seat of the Mercedes in which she was riding. Further south, in Kerhonkson, TJ Avery, 58, spun out of control on his motorcycle coming out of a Valero and crashed into the woods, dead on impact. Later that evening, there was a second crash, non-fatal, at the same Valero. On September 30th, in Wawarsing, a 36-year-old Ellenville woman, Elsa Booth, was fatally injured in a fiery collision with an out-of-state motor home.

Kaelyn Alexandra Rausch, 24, of Ellenville, died on October 7, a week after her 24th birthday and two days after a crash on Route 209 in Wawarsing.

Because four fatal accidents occurred in five weeks, it felt as if the state highway had become especially lethal. In fact, Route 209 has long been a treacherous road. The red heart memorial dates back to 2020 when Carmelita Vasquez, 70, a teacher's aide at Rondout, veered off the southbound lane just before the intersection with County Route 2 and plunged down the embankment into the small creek. Her car overturned in the water and was submerged.

The night of March 19, 2025, in Wawarsing, a semi-truck trailer struck a 20-year-old young Ellenville man, seriously injuring him. The driver of the Freightliner truck left the scene and was charged with a hit-and-run. He said, “I thought I hit a deer,” and later pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.

Last year, 2024, featured a four-car crash in Wawarsing, on August 19. All four drivers and two passengers were hurt but survived. That same year, the intersection of Route 17 and Route 209 in Wurtsboro was briefly shut down after a truck overturned, splashing a trailer full of chicken entrails across the highway.

A few months ago, two Journal readers stopped by the office with a photocopied article from the old Ellenville Journal, describing the frustration of Wawarsing officials struggling to reduce accidents on the road in 1987, nearly 40 years ago.

What can be done?

Many complaints have gone to the local governments but all 35 miles of Route 209 are a state highway and the towns cannot regulate speed.

Last year, the Sullivan County Legislature’s Public Works Committee formally complained to the state about the intersection of Sullivan Street and Route 209 in Wurtsboro, not far from where the chicken truck overturned. The intersection was a hotspot for accidents as trucks struggled to brake coming down a hill. In April of 2023, a semi-truck was hit by a dump truck at that intersection. The truck driver was trapped for more than three hours as first responders struggled to free him.

While, according to Mamakating Town Supervisor Michael Robbins, the state was responsive enough, local officials instead opted to get action from Sullivan County, who own the road with the problem hill. The county put up signs warning heavy trucks to take an alternate route, and the intersection has become much safer.

In the wake of the Labor Day deaths, Hurley Town Supervisor Mike Boms asked the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) to lower the speed limit from the State Police Barracks at 1791 Route 209 to the Bessal Road intersection, but the request has been repeatedly refused.

Boms noted that the town adopted three resolutions in June of the previous year, one of which sought to reduce the speed limit on Route 209 from 55 mph to 40 mph. The request focused particularly on the area near Russell Road, adjacent to a rail trail parking lot and crosswalk, which has seen numerous collisions and close calls. Additional proposals included reducing the speed limits on all town roads from 35 mph to 25 mph and lowering the speed limit around Myers Elementary School to 15 mph.

Despite these efforts, the state rejected the proposals. Officials cited adherence to the “85th percentile” standard – a national guideline that recommends setting speed limits within 5 mph of the speed at which 85 percent of vehicles are traveling. According to data collected on Route 209 through Hurley, that benchmark is 59 mph, making a 40 mph unrealistically slow.

Boms criticized the policy, arguing that it effectively favors drivers who exceed current speed limits. He believes that had the speed limit been reduced in the targeted section – from Wynkoop Road to Bessal Road – the recent fatality might have been avoided or at least less severe.

Adding to his frustration, Boms pointed out a neighboring town – Marbletown – where the speed limit drops to 40 mph along part of Route 209, in an area he says has similar traffic and safety concerns as Hurley. He emphasized the presence of a popular rail trail entrance in Hurley as a justification for increased pedestrian protections.

But Marbletown, too, is hunting for a solution. The town also acted after Labor Day. Town Supervisor Rich Parete requested that the DOT reduce the speed limit on Route 209 near Schoonmaker Lane from 55 mph to 45 mph, where, Parete says, “they floor it like crazy.” One challenge they’ve faced is that two speed studies didn’t give the necessary data, so the town also requested the DOT conduct another.

Wawarsing hasn’t spoken to the state about the safety of the road in recent memory, but they’re on the cusp of making it a bit safer in Kerhonkson, where they’ve finally gotten the approvals and funding for sidewalks on both sides of Route 209. The process took about twenty years. Parents of schoolchildren attending Kerhonkson Elementary School have also been vocally pushing for a speed limit or speedbump on Academy Street to protect children from drivers picking up speed coming down the hill on the way to Route 209.

The state, the towns, and the drivers who set their own speed limits all have different visions for Route 209, but there is a logic to the 85th percentile policy. The belief that it should be a fast road is supported by the fact that, in 1970, the state tried to interest the federal government in converting the whole route into a four-lane highway. Vestiges of this plan can be seen in Kingston, where it widens out and turns into Route 199.

On Carmelita Vasquez’s memorial page, one mourner wrote, “Today I stopped by the place where Carmalita had the accident. I sat there speechless and then tears came from my eyes. Such a shame. R.I.P sweet Carmalita.” Inspired, I too stopped by the red heart memorial and stared down the embankment to the creek where her car submerged. Then, without warning, I felt the wind tunnel of a speeding car – the draft whipped my coat and blew back my hair. I felt a deep chill.

A dangerous place to stand, even to grieve.