Wing’s Castle owner dies in crash

Stanford, N.Y. — It took only moments for police to respond to a 911 call following a one-car accident on Bulls Head Road near Shelley Hill Road in the town of Stanford on Sunday, Sept. 28, at around 3:15 p.m. When they did they found 67-year-old Peter J. Wing of the town of Washington badly injured; he was taken by ambulance to Northern Dutchess Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Wing is locally famous for creating Wing’s Castle in Millbrook, which was converted to a bed-and-breakfast in 2011;  and Frankenstein’s Fortress in Stanfordville, a Halloween theme park. 

Wing was driving a 1936 Morgan Supersport three-wheeled vehicle when, according to a police report, “failure of the back tire caused him to lose control of the vehicle and overturn.” 

Wing was alone in the car, which rolled over and ejected him onto the roadside. 

Capt. John Watterson of the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office said the vintage vehicle didn’t offer much protection.

“One of the interesting things about those vehicles is there are no seat belts in them,” he said. “This [vehicle] was not legally required to have seat belts … so if it overturns or flips over there is nothing at all preventing the occupants from being ejected, which is exactly what happened here.”

The Morgan is shaped like a triangle, with two wheels in the front and one in the rear. Watterson said they are an extremely rare sight on the roads.

“You hardly ever see them. They’re vintage, antique — certainly not vehicles that everyone has,” he said. “They’re rarely seen out and about. I’ve seen pictures of them but I’ve never seen one actually being used.”

Watterson said the accident appears to have been a freak incident.  

“There doesn’t appear to be any fault on the part of the driver here.”

The investigation is ongoing, but currently the Sheriff’s Office Crash Investigation Unit believes rear tire failure was the contributing factor.

The sheriff’s office was assisted at the scene of the accident by the New York State Police, the Stanford Fire Department and the Milan Fire Department.