Posts tagged "fatal crash"

A six-lane stretch of the 87-year-old Bronx River Parkway has earned a dangerous designation with the New York State Department of Transportation. The parkway section is considered one of the least safe roads in the state.

AAA of New York City said the state's poor safety ranking for the parkway was confirmed after a horrendous car accident that killed seven members of a Bronx family. The recent fatal accident was the second in one year in which a vehicle dived six stories into a ravine.

A New York City woman died when the livery car in which she was riding in crashed into a tractor-trailer and burst into flames on Central Park Avenue. State police investigating the Friday morning truck accident are working with information that suggests the livery car was in reverse when the collision occurred.

The wreck took place around 5:50 a.m. just prior to the Cross County Parkway ramp in Yonkers. Accident investigators are considering witness accounts that indicate the livery car was committing a traffic violation, backing up along Central Park Avenue to access a missed exit at Cross County.

A New York man, blamed for a fatal drunk driving accident that killed six people and injured eight others, will be sentenced later this month. The defendant admitted he ingested prescription medication and cocaine before the motor vehicle accident last July in Benton.

The 42-year-old driver pleaded not guilty in October to charges in an 18-count grand jury indictment. A public defender's initial request to have the court assess the driver's mental competence was later withdrawn.

The New York State Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation that would bring charges against intoxicated adult passengers who supervise inexperienced drivers. "Abbagail's Law" is one of two proposals circulating among state lawmakers meant to protect younger drivers and passengers from indirectly-caused drugged or drunk driving accidents.

The bills were drafted following the death of an 8-year-old Orleans County girl in a 2009 motor vehicle accident. A 17-year-old cousin, under the supervision of the child's inebriated father, was blamed for a crash that killed the girl. No law existed to criminalize the intoxication of the supervising adult.

Police officials across the United States do their best to track down drunk drivers because in many cases, those who choose to drink and drive often end up in car accidents. Unfortunately, those car accidents can often have unsuspecting victims.

Investigators have charged a New York man with a fatal drunk driving accident that killed a Bronx woman in November 2010. If convicted and sentenced to the maximum penalties, the 26-year-old suspect may spend the rest of his life in prison.

A 35-year-old highway department worker was killed recently in a truck accident at the Mamaroneck sanitation facility. A co-worker backed over the victim in a dump truck, which was impounded by town and Westchester County police.

The fatality appears to be a tragic accident based on initial investigative reports, according to a local administrative official. A police accident reconstruction unit is putting together a separate, more detailed report.

There is growing concern that hardly enough federal and state bus inspectors are available to check minimum safety regulations for bus companies, let alone perform a full inspection. According to reports, 2,327 state and federal personnel are responsible for inspecting 53,097 buses. That's roughly 22 buses per inspector, each of whom has additional responsibilities. Some are blaming a recent string of fatal bus accidents in the New York area this year on a lack of employees assigned to perform these inspections. As we discussed in our previous blog titled "Buses cited in fatal March crash still on the road," one bus this past March was involved in a serious late-night accident that killed 15 passengers and injured another 18 as it returned to Chinatown in New York. Another accident, also involving a bus traveling to Chinatown, killed four and injured 50. The company involved in the accident had been cited 46 times in the last two years for driver fatigue.

While experts point to the fact that private bus companies, also called "curbside" buses, are as much as seven times more likely to cause a fatal accident than other bus lines, many people are questioning whether government inspectors have become overworked, and have played an important role in the prevalence of recent deadly bus crashes.