Highway tragedy

Cal-Mum grad killed after falling from the roof of a moving car

A Wheatland man and Caledonia-Mumford graduate has died from the injuries he sustained in an accident that happened Sept. 8 around 3 a.m. in the Town of Wheatland.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department reports that 22-year old Orry Dowdell of Winslow Road, Wheatland was a rear passenger in a vehicle driven by his friend, 25-year old Timothy Gorton of LeRoy-Caledonia Road, Caledonia.

Three other friends were also in the vehicle. Dowdell climbed out the rear window and onto the roof of the moving vehicle and fell off.

He was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital where he died on Sept. 9.

According to the sheriff’s department, the driver was not drinking, although the other four men in the vehicle had been earlier in the night.

The friends were driving from Rochester to Wheatland when the accident happened. Gorton was charged with aggravated unlicensed operation third degree.

Dowdell was a 2009 graduate of Caledonia-Mumford High School.