Thanks to the goodwill of a highway contractor, medical helicopters now have a paved landing pad beside the state police barracks in Monroe to speed the evacuation of trauma victims from that area.

A Rockland County company that recently finished rebuilding the Route 17 overpass at County Route 105 laid down the concrete pad as a parting gift for the nearby state police unit, which handles accidents on that busy stretch of Route 17 near the Thruway.

David Tilton, a vice president of Eastern States Construction of Valley Cottage, called the work a gesture of gratitude for being allowed to store equipment beside the barracks during the 18-month-long bridge project. Monroe town officials had broached the idea, he said.

The pad measures 60 feet by 60 feet, the minimum size recommended for daytime helicopter landings, according to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla.

Westchester Medical, a top-level trauma center for the Hudson Valley, is the hospital that often dispatches helicopters to Orange County to collect seriously injured accident victims and other trauma patients – and is frequently used by Hatzolah.

Until now, helicopters have found various fields and parking lots on which to land in the Monroe area; sometimes landing on Route 17 to evacuate accident victims.

The new helipad might eliminate some of the more inconvenient landings. In July, for example, troopers stopped mid-day traffic on both sides of Route 17 so a helicopter could land on the highway, almost directly in front of the barracks, to pick up an injured man who had driven off the road.

(Source: YWN-32 / YWN-35 / YWN-112 / Times Herald Record)