Investigators are reconstructing the crash that killed 78-year-old Antoinette Stark, a Holyoke woman who had been shopping with her 71-year-old cousin.
04.20.2011 | WESTFIELD - The scene of a fatal accident at the intersection of Route 20 and East Mountain Road Wednesday.Updates story published Thursday at 10:37 a.m.
WESTFIELD – Westfield Police Lt. Jay Pitoniak said it’s still unknown if any citations will be filed in connection with a fatal three-car collision on Route 20 that claimed the life of a Holyoke woman Wednesday.
“It’s probably too soon to tell,” he said Thursday, adding that crash investigators will examine speed and other possible contributing factors.
"When they reconstruct it they’ll look at that,” Pitoniak said.
Antoinette Stark, 78, of 330 Rock Valley Road, Holyoke, died from injuries sustained in the 2:30 p.m. Wednesday crash at the intersection of Route 20 and East Mountain Road. She was pronounced dead later at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, police said.
Updates on the conditions of two others hospitalized in the crash – including the driver of the car in which Stark was a passenger – were not immediately available Thursday evening.
Stark was riding in a Toyota Camry driven by her cousin, Linda Barcomb, 71, of 160 Nonotuck St., Northampton. Barcomb was eastbound on Route 20 when she turned north onto East Mountain Road and collided with a Chevrolet Suburban that was westbound on Route 20, police said.
The impact sent Barcomb’s vehicle into a Toyota Corolla that was waiting at the traffic light on East Mountain Road, police said.
The crash forced the closure of the intersection for several hours Wednesday. Westfield and state police from the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section continue to investigate.
Additional information on the crash, including seat belt usage, was not immediately available.
According to CBS3 news, Stark and Barcomb were returning from a shopping trip when the crash occurred.
“She was loved by everyone who knew her. She was just a wonderful person,” David Stark, the deceased woman’s son, told CBS3.
Republican staff writer George Graham contributed to this report.