Josh Collins, 40, was a devoted son, history buff, newspaper deliveryman for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and a Saranac Lake native. He died in a collision with a Casella garbage truck while riding his bicycle Wednesday morning at the intersection of Lake Street and Petrova Avenue.

Police identified the driver of the truck as Stephen Durham, 32, of Plattsburgh. He was not injured in the collision and has not been charged with any violations at this time, according to Saranac Lake village police Chief James Joyce.

Joyce said his department is collaborating with New York State Police’s Collision Reconstruction Unit and Commercial Vehicles Unit on their investigation into what happened. The agencies haven’t drawn any conclusions yet, including about whether the truck hit the bike or the other way around, he said.

Police are seeking eyewitness reports of the collision, and they’re looking for anyone who might have video footage of the incident. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the police department at 518-891-4422.

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What we know

Police believe Collins was riding his bike away from the Adirondack Apartments complex, where he and his mother live, when the collision happened. The garbage truck was traveling on Lake Street away from downtown.

Saranac Lake police responded to the intersection of Lake and Petrova at 10:20 a.m. Wednesday, about a minute after the initial call to 911, according to Joyce. The Saranac Lake Volunteer Rescue Squad arrived shortly afterward. The Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department and Village of Saranac Lake Department of Public Works assisted with traffic control.

Asked if Collins was wearing a helmet, Joyce said police did not find one at the scene.

Emergency medical staff with the Saranac Lake Volunteer Rescue Squad performed CPR and tried to stabilize Collins after the collision. Franklin County Coroner Ron Keough pronounced him dead at the scene at 11:51 p.m. An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday, according to Keough.

The scene was cleared around 3 p.m., Joyce said.

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Traffic safety

Traffic deaths are rare in the village, something Joyce attributes largely to the village-wide speed limit of 30 miles per hour, except where otherwise posted.

“There are many years when there are no traffic deaths in the village,” he said.

Following the death of Collins, some residents of the Lake Street neighborhood shared with police and the Enterprise feelings that the intersection at Petrova Avenue has been unsafe for some time. The three-way intersection, which dovetails with an entrance to the apartment complex, doesn’t have stop signs. Instead, it’s ruled by yield signs.

Joyce said he couldn’t immediately recall any traffic incidents there, but “as we were making interviews yesterday, a lot of the residents expressed concerns about that intersection, and they live there and I do not.”

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Mourning

After the news of Collins’ death broke, a memorial in his honor was set up on Lake Street outside of the apartment complex he lived in.

Current and former members of the community mourned the loss of Collins, and shared an outpouring of support for his family on social media on Thursday.

“Josh was always a kind, good-natured person,” Jan Putnam Fitzerald wrote on Facebook. “He was a free spirit and it is sad that Saranac Lake no longer has him in our community.”

“He was one sharp boy,” Carla Varden Desmarais wrote. “We enjoyed every second with him on our trips. We made great memories.”

Joyce said he knew Collins, too, from occasionally speaking to him while on patrol.

“He’s talkative; he’s very friendly and outgoing and a very pleasant person each an every time I spoke to him,” the police chief said.

Collins was an Eagle Scout with an associate’s degree in computer information technology, and he was well known for his encyclopedic knowledge and memorization ability in fields such as U.S. presidents, ZIP codes, addresses and phone numbers.