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Three St. Lawrence County EMS workers killed in accident last year honored at memorial

Posted 5/24/18

Three emergency service providers from St. Lawrence County were honored at a ceremony at the EMS Memorial Wall in Albany Wednesday. Rod Cota, Gregg Williams, and Cory Moore, employees of the RB …

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Three St. Lawrence County EMS workers killed in accident last year honored at memorial

Posted

Three emergency service providers from St. Lawrence County were honored at a ceremony at the EMS Memorial Wall in Albany Wednesday.

Rod Cota, Gregg Williams, and Cory Moore, employees of the RB Lawrence Ambulance Service of Canton, were killed July 5, 2017 along Interstate 81 near Pulaski in a collision with a jackknifed milk truck as they returned from a patient transport to Syracuse.

"It was a very touching ceremony. I was honored to pay tribute to these heroes, three of whom were from the North Country," said Assemblywoman Addie Jenne, D-Theresa, who spoke at the ceremony.

Several family members and associates of the three St. Lawrence County men were in Albany for the event.

"I was impressed by the strength shown by their family members. They were proud to be in Albany to be able to honor their loved one," Jenne said.

"It was obvious these were three good-hearted North Country men who had made many sacrifices throughout their lives to serve their friends and neighbors in need," she added.

"I was able to offer my personal condolences with family members and staff from RB Lawrence Ambulance Service. I hope the honor we gave their loved ones today will play a small role in easing the sorrow of losing their loved ones," she said.

Also honored at the memorial Wednesday were five emergency workers from New York City.

Jenne said all eight EMS providers recognized at Wednesday's event were heroes.

"In an era when sometimes the names we hear the most are those who have committed atrocious crimes, let us remember the names of real heroes from the state of New York; men and women who gave so much to help others during their lifetimes," she said.

Cota, a critical care technician, and Williams, the driver, were headed home when their ambulance broke down, a press release from the assemblywoman said. Moore, the company's mechanic, drove to the Pulaski area to bring them home. The fatal accident occurred only about five miles into the second half of their journey home.

"It was an accident that hit close to home for so many of our first responders in the North Country. They transport critically ill patients and patients with serious injuries from hospitals in St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties to major medical facilities in Burlington, Vt., and Syracuse - trips that can take three to four hours one way from some of our local hospitals in good weather - on an almost a daily basis," Jenne said.

"Today, we remember the long-time member of the EMS service in St. Lawrence County, father of five and grandfather of 15; the man who spent five years as a member of the U.S. Navy, another 17 years in the Naval reserves, a retiree from the Department of the Corrections and Community Services and a dad who has just walked his daughter down at the aisle at her wedding; and a jack of all trades who was buried at the private airport in the Adirondacks where he had planned to marry his long-time fiancée in another month, weeks away from earning his pilot's license so he could fly his late dad's plane out of the private airport that carried their name and dad to four daughters and a son," she said, noting Mr. Moore's death struck close to home for the daughter of a mechanic.