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Deputies from the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office responded to the crash on State Route 20A at State Route 238 in the Town of Orangeville around 9:35 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 17 and found that a full sized tractor trailer had collided with a full sized motorhome occupied by a New Jersey family comprising four adults and five children on their way to Niagara Falls.
It wasn't immediately clear where in New Jersey the family is from.
The motorhome driver was airlifted by Mercy Flight to Erie County Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
A mother accompanied her three-year-old child, who had suffered a non-life-threatening injury, to Wyoming County EMS to Oishei’s Children’s Hospital.
"Most" of the other occupants were evaluated at the scene and did not require further medical care, according to the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office.
A follow-up investigation found that the tractor-trailer driver, Leonard K. Lwindi, 30, of Amherst, New York, was heading northbound in a 2019 International on Hermitage Road and failed to stop for the stop sign when approaching the intersection with State Route 20A.
Lwindi “drove into oncoming traffic at full speed” and crashed into the 2008 Gulf motorhome, which was heading westbound, the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office said.
Lwindi was issued a citation for failure to stop at a stop sign and is scheduled to appear in Orangeville Court. Further charges are possible as the investigation continues.
Meanwhile, the crash left four children between the ages of seven and 15 stranded at the scene. A deputy from the WCSD transported them to Oishei’s Children’s Hospital in Buffalo to be reunited with their family. Some had been left without shoes following the crash, leading to a “notable act of kindness:”
“The Deputy Sheriff stopped at Dollar General in Varysburg, NY, and the store graciously donated the needed footwear, along with drinks for all of the children,” said the WCSD.
The deputy also stopped and provided a meal to the four children on the way to the hospital.
“The Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office commends both Dollar General and the Deputy Sheriff for their selfless, generous acts during this holiday season.”
Assisting agencies include the Warsaw Fire Department, Vaysburg Fire Department, North Java Fire Department, Wyoming County EMS, Mercy Flight, and Wyoming County Office of Emergency Management, New York State Police, DMR Towing, and Valley Sales & Service.
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