SIX DEAD IN HORRIFIC CHURCH VAN CRASH ON NY THRUWAY
From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Bronx Accident Lawyer)
Please someone explain to me why, with everything we know, back seat passengers still don't wear seatbelts. It's very simple Dear Readers: You wear a seatbelt, you don't get ejected onto the roadway in a motor vehicle accident!
On Saturday September 18. 2010, six members of a Bronx church were killed and eight others injured in a horrific church van crash on the New York Thruway in Orange County today, New York State troopers said. The tragic crash occurred at about 3 p.m. near milepost 50.7 in the Thruway's northbound lane, between exit 16 in Harriman and exit 17 in Newburgh.
The cause seemed to be a rear tire blowout that sent the van careening out of control before it flipped on its side. The impact of the crash flung passengers out of the van, which was carrying 14 people.
Traffic was backed up on the highway for hours as rescuers evacuated the injured and cleared the dead from the scene. Three helicopters were called in to evacuate the most critically injured. Others were taken to hospitals by ambulance.
Four of the injured were taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, and four to Westchester County Medical Center in Valhalla, authorities said. One of the critically injured from Good Samaritan Hospital was later moved to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. All four taken to Good Samaritan were female, two of whom were in critical condition, hospital spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said.
A law-enforcement source said that the passengers of the van were mostly people in the early 20s. Sources say that church members were headed to a banquet upstate when tragedy struck.
Authorities were still trying to identify the passengers.
The Thruway's northbound lanes are expected to be closed much of the night while investigators and rescuers cleaned up the scene, said Thruway Authority spokesman Guy Hulbert. Southbound lanes were partially closed, with crews keeping a separate lane open so emergency crews could get to the scene.
Many rescue vehicles could be seen filling the lanes of the Thruway in TV footage from news helicopters. The accident happened about five miles north of the Woodbury Common shopping mall.
