8 killed in Taconic Parkway accident
A family minivan was going in the wrong direction crashed into two cars at the Taconic State Parkway, near Route 117 in Hawthorne on Sunday July 26th 2009. Eight people including 4 young cousins, all under the age of 10 and the mother of one of them, who was driving the car were killed in that multi-car accident.
The fifth child in the van was rushed from the scene to Westchester Medical Center. The driver is said to be the 36-year-old mother of the surviving child. They were part of a family from Floral Park and West Babylon, on Long Island.
State police Investigator Joseph Becerra told that a minivan was traveling southbound in the northbound lanes just after 2 p.m. when it struck an SUV head on. After the crash, the van hit another vehicle before rolling down an edge and bursting into flames.
The first accident occurred about 32 km (20 miles) north of the fatal one. The adult and four of the children in the minivan, and all three people in the SUV, were killed. Police have not released yet the names of the eight dead.
Katrina Papha, a witness, who saw the accident in her rearview mirror when she was traveling north on the parkway to a family barbecue in Mahopac.
The scenic Taconic State Parkway was built over a number of years in stages beginning in the early 1920s. This incident is the worst deadly roadway accident in Westchester County in 75 years. More information about this terrible accident.
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