‘Time traveler’ gets prison for Ballston Spa crash

PHOTOGRAPHER: Stephen Williams

A Malta man who police said thought he was traveling through time when he caused a serious car crash won’t be traveling much for some time.

Terrence J. Rudes, 21, of 9D Windy Hill Drive, who admitted to being under the influence of the hallucinogen LSD during the crash, is going to prison.

Rudes was sentenced Thursday in Saratoga County Court to 11⁄2 to three years for vehicular assault.

Rudes, who told police he believed he was “time-traveling” when he crossed lanes and hit another vehicle, was sentenced by Judge Jerry J. Scarano on his earlier guilty plea to second-degree vehicular assault.

“This defendant mixed alcohol and drugs and believed he could time travel like the movie ‘Back to the Future.’ He told the police that he intentionally drove into the other car to see what would happen,” District Attorney James A. Murphy III said.

In addition to the prison time, Rudes will have a mandatory three-year period with an alcohol-sensing ignition interlock device on any vehicle he drives.

The crash occurred on Church Avenue in the village of Ballston Spa on Sept. 17, 2012. Murphy said Rudes was northbound when he crossed the double yellow line and crashed head-on into another vehicle in the southbound lane.

The other driver was seriously injured, Murphy said.

Ballston Spa police determined Rudes was operating under the combined influence of alcohol and LSD. Assistant District Attorney Patrick Campion read a victim impact statement in court detailing how the crash has affected the driver’s life and that of her family — not just physically, but also emotionally and financially.

“The defendant admitted in court that he was high on LSD and alcohol,” Murphy said. “Nothing describes his state of impairment better than what the police tell us he said as the scene:

“ ‘I thought I could time travel and drive through [the other car] … I wanted to see what would happen.’ ”