By Jeanne Sager
CALLICOON — December 20, 2005 – A snow day should be a reason for school kids to celebrate – for the kids at Sullivan West, Friday’s storm was a tragedy.
The ice and snow that dropped across the county Thursday night into Friday closed every school in the county and sent twin brothers John Paul “JP” and Mason Rosello out on a drive in the snow.
It was on their trip back home to Long Eddy that tragedy struck.
According to State Police Senior Investigator Mike Orrego, JP was driving the brothers’ 1999 Ford Ranger northbound on Route 97, a quarter mile north of the Holy Cross Church, when the 17-year-old lost control on the snowy surface.
“He starts to lose it, overcorrects, winds up going sideways,” Orrego described, “ends up in the other lane, where he collides with [a] dumptruck.”
That truck, outfitted with a plow, was being driven toward Callicoon by the Rosellos’ neighbor on Hungry Hill Road in Long Eddy – Robert Sanzoverino, 44.
Sanzoverino’s son, 18-year-old Robert, was in the passenger seat.
When the boys’ truck hit, it spun, then flipped.
According to Orrego, Mason’s body was ejected from the Ford Ranger.
Although volunteers from the Upper Delaware Ambulance Corps arrived quickly to offer medical assistance, Mason Rosello was pronounced dead that afternoon at the Grover Hermann Division of Catskill Regional Medical Center, just up the road on Route 97 in Callicoon.
John Paul suffered only minor cuts to his face, Orrego said, and the Sanzoverinos both had minor contusions.
Orrego said the accident is still under investigation – although he surmised road conditions and driver inexperience likely caused the tragedy.
Orrego could not say whether Mason was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the crash – that too is under investigation.
Mason was a senior at the Sullivan West Central School along with his brother. An honor student and avid 4-Her, Rosello was emcee of the school’s talent show two weeks prior.
When school opened Monday morning, Superintendent Alan Derry said a decision was made to cancel the Monday evening parent meeting for grades 10 through 12, and all after-school activities for Monday and Tuesday were canceled.
Sporting events were canceled through Thursday, and the Sullivan West junior high school and elementary concerts were combined – the concert will be held Thursday at 7 p.m.
The district’s emergency response team was put into play at both the elementary and high school buildings, Derry said, and the district is working with the BOCES response team as well.
A bus has been arranged to take juniors and seniors to the funeral on Wednesday at Holy Cross Church in Callicoon.
Derry said Monday was a “quiet day” at the high school.
“There’s no goodness in this,” he said.
But the fact that time had passed between the accident and school’s opening seemed to have helped, Derry said, allowing kids time to deal with the sad news.
“In fact,” he said, “things are going relatively quietly.”