Three killed in area crashes River guide, 15, dies after bus flips; Thruway accident claims life of 2 passengers

Separate accidents on area roads just a few hours apart claimed the lives of three young people during the holiday weekend. On the state Thruway, two people were killed in a violent multi-vehicle accident just before midnight Friday between exits 24 and 25 in Guilderland, State Police said Saturday. In Lake Luzerne, early Saturday afternoon, a river guide was killed when the rafting company bus he was riding in rolled over and ejected him. In the Thruway crash, troopers said Tyler S. Pascuzzi, 24, of Coxsackie, driving a Volkswagen GLI, was heading west in the center lane and speeding when it hit a Honda Civic driven by Brian Miller, 29, of Schenectady. The Volkswagen began to spin and continued traveling west, striking an Old Dominion Freight Lines tractor-trailer and splitting in two, troopers said. The Volkswagen's passengers — Cody J. Veverka, 23, of South Cairo in Greene County and Alicia M. Tamboia, 24, of the Dutchess County community of Wingdale — were thrown from the car and killed at the scene, police said. Pascuzzi and Miller, whose Civic struck the center guide rail and came to a rest, were taken to Albany Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. The tractor-trailer driver was not injured. A fourth car was traveling behind the accident and struck parts of the Volkswagen, causing damage but no more injuries. State Police teams are investigating but no charges had been filed later Saturday. The Lake Luzerne accident happened at about 12:30 p.m. when the bus carrying river tubers from Tubby Tubes Rafting Company rolled over near the Hudson River, killing the 15-year-old guide whose name and address were not released. The youth was one of three employees in the bus that was carrying 31 customers heading to an excursion on the Hudson, police said. The bus flipped at Thomas and River roads, a few miles north of the village of Lake Luzerne. One of the customers had an ankle injury and was taken to Glens Falls Hospital. Police said their initial investigation points to mechanical problems with the bus, but the investigation is ongoing. A person who answered the phone at Tubby Tubes declined comment. The State Police were assisted at the scene by Warren County Sheriffs officials.