In August 2005, for example, a motorcyclist died when he crashed into a car that was illegally turning around in the middle of Route 209 – something unlikely to happen on a busier thoroughfare elsewhere.

In another incident earlier that year on the same road, a man walking along the highway in the dark was struck and killed by a passing vehicle.

And consider a third fatal crash on the same road that year: A 19-year-old rode an all-terrain vehicle onto Route 209 – where ATVs are forbidden – and careened into the path of an oncoming car. He later died at a Poughkeepsie hospital.