Grandmother involved in Duanesburg crash dies

PHOTOGRAPHER: Photo Provided

Betty Brockhum, 56, of Gloversville, left, is pictured with her daughter, Vanessa Cohn, 35, of Esperance. Brockhum died Sept. 15 after being in critical condition from a Sept. 3 head-on crash that had killed Cohn and her daughter, Summer Penny, 14.

The grandmother involved in a head-on Duanesburg crash that killed her daughter and granddaughter died Tuesday when her family decided to take her off life support, her niece, Misty Kinner, said.

Betty Brockhum, 56, of Gloversville had been listed in critical condition at Albany Medical Center following the crash, which occurred the evening of Sept. 2 on Route 30 near the Duanesburg Churches Road intersection.

Her daughter, Vanessa Cohn, 35, died at the scene and her granddaughter, Summer Penny, 14, was taken to Albany Medical Center where she was pronounced dead. They lived in Esperance.

The Go Fund Me page “Cohn Family Fundraiser” can be found at http://www.gofundme.com/j43p6e28.

Joseph Duffy, 27, of Amsterdam was driving a Dodge Durango south in the wrong lane shortly before 7:10 p.m. when he crashed into a small sedan heading north in the northbound lane driven by Cohn, State Police said.

Duffy was charged with vehicular homicide, vehicular manslaughter and recklessly causing injury, among other charges. Troopers said he was on drugs at the time, and they also ticketed him for consumption of alcohol in a motor vehicle, moving over the center line and passing in a no-passing zone. He was treated at Albany Medical Center.

Brockhum was going back-to-school shopping with her daughter and granddaughter at the time of the crash, Kinner said. Classes were scheduled to start in a week, and Penny would have been a ninth-grader at Duanesburg Junior/Senior High School.

Students wore her favorite color, blue, on the first day of school to honor her memory.

A Go Fund Me page called “Cohn Family Fundraiser” was started on Sept. 8 to help the family, and by this afternoon it had raised $485 toward a $20,000 goal.

“Vanessa’s husband now has 6 kids to take care of by himself,” reads a post on the page, which Kinner created. “Please help Summer’s family get [through] this tough time.”

Kinner declined to provide a full interview today, but said on Facebook: “After a long 11 day fight, unfortunately Betty passed away. God watch over her and continue to keep my family strong and in his blessing.”

She also urged people not to drink and drive, saying that one man’s “reckless and careless decision has robbed my family of three people that we loved and cherished.”