First responders to deadly Farmingdale High School bus crash honored

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday in Albany honored hundreds of law enforcement, fire and ambulance personnel who rescued Farmingdale High School band members after their bus crashed last month in rural Orange County. 

Those men and women, trained to overcome the instinct for self-preservation, “go into harm’s way because there just might be someone who needs them … And they sure did,” Hochul said. “There are … students alive today because of your actions.”

More than 200 responders, including officers of Middletown-based State Police Troop F, Orange County sheriff’s deputies, members of area fire and ambulance companies and other emergency services authorities, participated in the Sept. 21 rescue, Hochul said.

Farmingdale’s rented 2014 Prevost motor coach was traveling west on Interstate 84 near upstate Wawayanda, bound for the band’s annual training camp in Greeley, Pennsylvania, with 40 students and four adults aboard when it left the road and crashed down a 50-foot ravine.

Several occupants, including the bus driver and two other adults — Gina Pellettiere, 43, of Massapequa, the director of bands at the high school, and band chaperone Beatrice Ferrari, 77, of Farmingdale — were ejected from the vehicle.  Pellettiere and Ferrari were killed and dozens of students injured.

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The Wawayanda ravine was so steep that, after the crash, rescuers used a rope to bring stretchers up to the road, Hochul said.

Among those Hochul honored by name was Hayden Thompson, a lieutenant from the Westfall Township, Pennsylvania, fire department. According to an Oct. 5 release from the Orange County executive’s office, Thompson was working his full-time job as a truck driver when he passed the crash. “Without hesitation, he immediately jumped into action to help the injured victims as additional personnel arrived at the chaotic scene,” according to that release.

In a phone interview, Thompson, 24, said the Farmingdale youths he'd encountered minutes after the crash had been "injured, shaken up, nervous, scared — you can imagine the emotions going through their heads." 

Though he'd been singled out for praise because he was the first to respond, Thompson said he'd been part of a team. "The whole incident was a puzzle — every piece needed to be placed and I just happened to be the first. I very well could have been the last." 

Authorities are still investigating factors that may have caused the crash, but several families of high school band members have sued the company that owns the bus and its driver, alleging negligence. At least one family filed a notice of suit against the school district early this month, asking for $12 million to compensate for injuries and pay for medical and psychological care.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.