GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — At least one person was injured after a small plane crashed on takeoff from Great Barrington Airport on Tuesday evening. The victim was taken to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries, according to YNN.

There were reportedly two people in the Piper Cub.

The crash was reported shortly after the plane took at 6 p.m. by FireGround360. It apparently came down across the line in Egremont near Route 71.

Egremont firefighters were called to the station; scanner reports stated the plane was 400 to 600 feet from the runway and "in trees" near Pumpkin Hollow Road.

No further information was immediately available.

Updated 9:08 a.m. A Lifeflight helicopter turned back after hitting poor conditions over the mountains. The patient was taken to North Adams Regional Hospital and a few hours later taken to  Albany (N.Y.) Medical Center by ambulance.

The crash reportedly occurred when the vehicle went over an embankment at the dead end of Highland Avenue. That information has not been confirmed by police.

ADAMS, Mass. — A single-vehicle accident early Saturday morning left two young people seriously injured, according to scanner reports.

A Lifeflight helicopter that was to land in the Adams Internists parking lot turned back after hitting poor conditions over the mountains. It was supposed to take one of the vehicle's occupants to Albany (N.Y.) Medical Center, reportedly with a head injury. A second individual was taken by ambulance to Berkshire Medical Center.

The crash occurred around 1 a.m. on Glendale Drive, a dense residential area off West Road. Police were looking for a third occupant who was believed to have left the scene.

Adams and North Adams ambulance services responded to the scene along with police and firefighters.

Update Monday, Oct. 4, 2010, at 2:45 p.m.: Balsamo was sentenced in Berkshire Superior Court on Monday morning to six to 10 years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Cedar Junction on the vehicular homicide charge. The other charges were filed.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A Connecticut woman pleaded guilty on Wednesday morning to charges related to the Sandisfield crash that killed Erin Dufour of Chicopee last year. Dufour, who was also listed by authorities as residing in Tolland, spent much of her life in Western Massachusetts.

Pamela N. Balsamo, 48, of Cedar Lane, Barkhamsted, Conn., appeared before Judge John  Agostini in Berkshire Superior Court. She pleaded guilty to single counts of motor vehicle homicide while under the influence of alcohol and operating to endanger, failure to stay within marked lanes and speeding.

Agostini ordered that she be held without bail at the Berkshire County House of Correction pending sentencing which will occur Monday, Oct. 4, at 10 a.m.  
 
Balsamo was operating a Mercedes that struck the 29-year-old Dufour's Honda head-on on March 18, 2009.

The investigation was conducted by state troopers assigned to the Lee barracks.

Chicopee Woman Killed in Sandisfield Head-on Crash

11:40PM / Wednesday, March 18, 2009

SANDISFIELD, Mass. — A Chicopee woman was killed Wednesday evening after her car was hit head-on by another vehicle on Route 8 near Tucker's Tavern.

Erin E. Dufour, 29, of was northbound on Route 8 in a 2008 Honda hatchback at about 8 p.m. when she was struck head on by 47-year-old Pamela Balsamo of Barkhamsted, Conn., who was driving a 2002 Mercedes sedan south in the northbound lane, according to the preliminary investigation by Trooper James Somerville of the Lee barracks.

The Dufour suffered serious injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene by the medical examiner. Balsamo was transported by ambulance with serious injuries to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, Conn.

The crash remains under investigation with the assistance of the state police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and Crime Scene Services. The Sandisfield Police Department, Fire Department and emergency medical services and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner assisted troopers at the scene.

All lanes of Route 8 were closed for approximately 1 ½ hours for the crash investigation and vehicle removal.

Dufour had lived in Western Mass for 10 years and was a Pella Windows sales representative. Born in Maine, she spent much of her life there but spent her senior year of high school in New York, graduating from Bethlehem High School in Delmar.

An outdoorswoman and athlete, she received best in show for driving "The Queen Bee" at a tri-county demolition derby in Northampton. She loved cats and volunteered at the local animal shelter. Her parents live in Lakeville.

Updated with victim's identity, Thursday, March 19, 2009, 8:45 a.m.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009: This story has generated a great deal of interest so we have included more information about Ms. Dufour and a link to her obituary in SouthCoastToday.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A city woman was killed Friday afternoon in a three-vehicle crash on Route 2 in Orange. Her identification has not been released pending notification of family.

Update: Police identified the woman as 59-year-old Anne Hill at 7:24 on Saturday morning.

Three others were injured in the crash, which occurred at about 3:15. State police from the Athol barracks responded to the scene.
 
Preliminary investigation by Trooper Frank Parillo indicates that a 2003 Toyota Matrix operated by a 59-year-old North Adams woman was eastbound on Route 2 when it veered into the westbound lanes, striking a 2008 Hyundai Elantra operated by Catherine Runge, 25, of Quincy. The Toyota then struck a 2010 Ford F-150 pickup truck head-on that was operated by John F. Maquire III, 45, of Stow.

The North Adams woman was transported to Athol Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Runge and Maquire were both transported to Athol Memorial with minor injuries.

Three passengers in the pickup were also taken to Athol Memorial: Susan Dearborn,47, was then transferred to University of Massachusetts Medical in Worcester with serious injuries. An 11-year-old boy suffered minor injuries and a 7-year-old girl was transported as a precaution. All three reside in Stow. State police do not release the names of juvenile victims.

The crash remains under investigation by Troop C with the assistance of the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and the Crime Scene Services Section. Troopers were assisted at the scene by the Orange Fire Department and the state Department of Transportation Highway Division.

During the crash investigation, the roadway was closed for approximately three hours for emergency response, vehicle removal and crash investigation.   

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A Pittsfield man reportedly tossed into the air by a moving vehicle on Thursday afternoon fled the scene to hide out in a nearby basement, stopping first to provision himself with the homeowner's iPod, cell phone and beer, said police.

Mahadi S. Thompson, 28, of Peck's Road was charged with single counts each of breaking and entering in the daytime and larceny from a building. He was released on personal recognizance.

Thompson "was less than cooperative with police regarding the motor vehicle incident," according to police; the vehicle and driver involved have not been identified.

A motorist westbound on Green River Road saw a man believed to be Thompson struck or thrown from a vehicle at about 2 p.m. near the Hopper Road intersection. She called 911 to report seeing a man "fly through the air" and apparently knocked out of his shoes, which were lying in the middle of the road.

The victim, described as black and wearing a sweat shirt, ran up to her car and asked for a ride to the hospital. When the motorist told him she was calling 911, the victim ran up the road and then through a yard and disappeared behind some nearby homes, said police.

Police responding to the scene were told by several homeowners they'd seen a man matching the victim's description run through their yards. After a brief search failed to turn up the victim, the town's K-9 Unit (Blue the bloodhound and Officer Michael Ziemba) were called in.

Blue used the scent from the shoes to track the victim from behind the homes and back out to the road, where a man's tracks could be seen in the mud. A resident of a home close by said a family member had just returned home to discover a cottage on the property locked up. The cottage had been left unlocked when the family member had left a few hours before.

Police said Thompson was found in a basement closet, along with iPod and cell phone taken from the family's personal effects as well as a beer from the refrigerator.

He was treated by Village Ambulance personnel and taken to North Adams Regional Hospital for injuries sustained in the accident.