To the Editor:

Letters published in the Feb. 18 and 25 editions of The Enterprise misrepresent the fatal incident at the Berne highway garage as a tragic “accident” and put responsibility on the victim while politicians whitewash the incident.

Easily preventable incidents that result in serious injuries or fatalities are not accidents; they are preventable incidents.

In a Feb. 25 letter titled “Everyone can point fingers but sadly it was a tragic accident,” Mr. Richard Filkins of Westerlo writes: 

 “All of those rules and regulations that were violated should have been in place long before Randy Bashwinger won the election and took over the position as the Town of Berne Highway Superintendent (or before Sean Lyons was elected as supervisor for that matter).”  

And he further states:

“Everyone can point fingers all they want but sadly it was a tragic accident in my opinion and sadly seems to me Peter broke standard procedures of working on large apparatus by not properly chocking and cribbing the wheels on that truck.” 

This is utter nonsense. Training and retraining is necessary because people become complacent. It’s human nature. It’s one of our flaws as humans.

Training and workplace policies and procedures prevent incidents like this. Mr Filkins is putting the responsibility of this fatal incident on the victim and whitewashing the role Republican politicians played in the incident. This is a workplace with well documented noncompliance with safety standards, inadequate training, and inadequate policy and procedures for years now. 

The editor identifies Mr. Filkins as a Republican councilman in Westerlo. What a surprise. This is very blatant politicization of our tragedy in Berne.

The tragedy, coincidentally, resulted from the total politicization of the highway superintendent’s position and a highway superintendent who is so obsessed with politics that he spends half his time at a GOP job in Albany and the other half on politically motivated Facebook posts, emails, political stunts, and his GOP chairmanship.  He has no time to supervise operations and it shows.

Personally, I think Mr. Filkins’s further politicizing of this situation is what is incredibly inconsiderate and insensitive. It is also dangerous. This is yet another politically motivated effort to cast a positive light on the incompetence of fellow politicians.

Elected officials who lie in matters of public and employee safety should be removed from office in my opinion or have the common decency to step down. I am pointing the finger of accountability based on years of documented willful negligence and obstruction of efforts to proactively address safety issues.

Mr. Bashwinger is nearing the end of his second four-year term. I began pointing out and documenting his noncompliance with safety standards and laws in the beginning of his first term. I have been documenting his extremely dangerous practices and noncompliance for years since. 

What he inherited seven years ago is not an excuse to deliberately ignore safety regulations and policies brought to his attention for years now. That is ridiculous, Mr. Filkins. 

In the Feb. 18 issue, acknowledging the inherent risks of working on trucks and heavy equipment, Supervisor Lyons states:

“Peter knew this also, so no amount of prior paperwork would have changed the outcome of that day — it simply was a tragic accident.”

This is also utter nonsense. Training and retraining is necessary because people become complacent. It’s human nature. It’s one of our flaws as humans. Training and workplace policies prevent incidents like this.

Mr. Lyons is putting the responsibility of this fatal incident on the victim of a workplace that has been knowingly without proper training, procedures, and policies for the many years Mr. Bashwinger has been in charge.  

But Mr. Lyons could have done some paperwork himself that would have made a difference. As the town safety officer, he announced in October 2019, the establishment of a safety committee to investigate the Bridge Road incident where a work-zone intrusion resulted in a vehicle in the bottom of a deep excavation employees were working on.

There were no barricades or signs at the work site. I have documented that this work site was not in compliance with safety standards adopted by Vehicle and Traffic Law and I had documented various problems of noncompliance for four years prior to that incident.

Who was appointed to that committee, Mr. Lyons? What were the findings? No amount of paperwork would have changed the outcome? Clearly, Mr. Lyons, doing no paperwork at all would do nothing to address the safety compliance problems. I have seen no paperwork whatsoever documenting the committee members or their findings.

What if an employee had been working in that excavation? Would we be saying that it was just a tragic accident that he or she was crushed by that vehicle? What if the driver or passengers had been injured or killed? Just a tragic accident?

Mr. Bashwinger chained four loaded trucks together back in 2018 to attempt to pull one loaded truck out and documented it in one of his Facebook posts. This is incredibly dangerous to employees and destructive to the trucks.

What if an employee had been whipped by a clevis or other rigging when it or a chain broke? Would we be calling that fatality a tragic accident that could not be avoided too?

Mr. Bashwinger gleefully accepted responsibility for illegally erecting his handmade billboard-sized election signs on a state right-of-way and in places that eliminated critical highway sight distance. This is well documented.

He blocked sight distance at the senior center on New York Route 443. Would we call a fatality resulting from his ridiculous, illegal erection of huge signs on the state right-of-way a tragic accident that could not be avoided too?

The bottom line here is that these people have proactively worked to obstruct efforts to address significant safety problems and this is well documented.

Mr. Lyons promises safety will now be taken seriously? He says a lot of things. He has no authority over the superintendent of highways whatsoever.

Joel Willsey

Berne Town Board