KNOX — On Labor Day, 17-year old Jenny Busch was looking forward to beginning her final year as a student at Berne-Knox Westerlo High School and was happy to be finally in possession of the New York State driver license issued to her two weeks before.

She was driving a 2007 Ford Fusion on Knox Cave Road (Route 252), traveling  in a southeasterly direction, intending to make a right-hand turn onto Beebe Road (Route 259).

About 100  yards before the two roads meet, the remains of a former crossover from one road to the other caught her eye.

But the crossover no longer exists except in the memory of people like  Jenny’s  father, Darrin (“Dig”) Busch, who — like many others — once used the crossover to simplify right turns from Knox Cave Road onto Beebe Road or left turns from Beebe Road  onto Knox Cave Road.  Jennifer’s mother, Holly Busch who works in The Enterprise business office, says signs once  indicated these options but they were always being stolen.

There are no signs now, just a graveled surface at the edge of Beebe Road  and Knox Cave Road and between them a weedy swathe of green — at least in non-winter months.  But hidden from view in that green is a ditch, the vegetation largely concealing it. It’s the kind of ditch dug in tank warfare.

The first Jenny knew the ditch was there was when her car slammed into it after she had made the right turn off Knox Cave Road, heading for Beebe Road on  what looked to her like a convenient way to complete her turn.

She didn’t even have time to brake before the forward momentum of her vehicle was stopped cold by the ditch, in one terrifying moment.

Here’s how her mother describes the accident on her Facebook page:

“She hit that ditch going at a good speed. She never saw a ditch so never hit her brakes. My 100 pound daughter was thrown up and hit her head on the roof of the car while the rearview mirror came off and hit her in the face. Her airbag deployed hitting her in the jaw, chest and abdomen. Her feet had hit the pedals and were cut and bleeding. The airbag was smoking and was too hot to touch.”

Dazed but finally able to to extricate herself from the car and call her parents, she watched  several motorists pass on by until Bill and Patty VanDyke, who live on Beebe Road near the intersection, stopped to help.  Jenny was taken to Albany Medical Center by ambulance where an emergency room workup showed her to be bruised but unbroken.

Now almost four weeks later, Jenny Busch still feels some lingering effects.

Patty VanDyke told The Enterprise, “Since the road has been changed we have seen at least four different accidents doing the very same thing. If you are following GPS, especially at night, it is very misleading and very hard to see the ditch that runs through the former road.”

According to Mary Rozak, Albany County’s communications director, records show that the intersection was altered years ago to make the crossover no longer an option. Signs were erected to announce the change. She said county highway department policy is to leave the signs up for one year.   Today, no signs or barriers  prevent drivers from  doing what Jenny did.

A coincidence?

Nor were any warning signs there when, on the night of July 7, 2015, another young driver, Noah Rowe of Esperance, found  himself and his van in the same ditch. The vehicle was totaled, but Noah was unhurt. He is now 18 and is serving in the National Guard and so was unavailable to speak to The Enterprise for this story.  He called his father, Matt Rowe,  who rushed to the scene in time to speak to the investigating New York State Trooper. He recalls the trooper  told him, “This intersection is a pretty dangerous setup.”

Coincidentally, Matt Rowe happened to be passing by the same intersection more than a year later, a short time after Jenny Busch’s accident occurred. He stopped to find out what had happened and was astonished to see what looked almost like an reenactment of his son’s accident, but from the opposite direction. The front of his son’s van had buried itself in the ditch after Noah followed GPS directions and turned left from Beebe Road onto what looked to him like a crossover to Knox Cave Road.

A Department of Transportation accident-study map of the area provided to  The Enterprise shows all reported accidents at and near the intersection that occurred from Aug. 8, 2011, to July 31, 2016, a cut-off date before Jennny Busch’s accident. But the accident map does show “a collision with a ditch” on the date of Noah Rowe’s accident, July 7, 2015. However, it places the event at a spot on Beebe Road well before the intersection.

This is incorrect, Matt Rowe told The Enterprise.

The county did not respond to The Enterprise request for information concerning when and why the ditch had been dug across the former crossover.

Holly Busch said on her Facebook page, “I believe this situation happened so we can bring attention to this dangerous road before someone is paralyzed or dies.”

She  sees the hand of providence, too, in the fact that another parent, whose son had had the same violent encounter with the ditch, happened to come by exactly when her own daughter had had hers.

“My teenager was not texting, drinking, fooling around with friends,” Busch continued, “and still almost was killed because some adults were irresponsible and didn't do their job. I am not after a lawsuit or want to have anyone lose their job. I am trying desperately to save everyone from a very serious situation.”