8 killed in highway crash outside New York (wrong way driver)

[Liberal_in_LA]

Source: CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A three-vehicle crash north of New York killed eight people, including four children, state police said on Sunday.

A fifth child is being treated for injuries suffered in the crash near Pleasantville, about 30 miles north of New York. Police initially reported no survivors.

The crash happened when a minivan carrying the five children and one adult was heading the wrong way on a northbound lane of the Taconic State Parkway, police said. It crashed head-on into an SUV carrying three adults.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/26/new.york.fatal.crash/index.html

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What can you do when wrong way driver is heading towards you on the freeway? Not much I guess. Use to be more of this in Los Angeles.

[brooklynite]

1. I drove te entire Taconic this afternoon...

...nice to know what to be prepared for next time.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

2. I've never seen a wrong way driver that wasn't drunk or very elderly.

[SecularMotion]

17. You've never driven the Taconic

The Taconic Parkway is a divided highway separated by a median of grass, trees, and brush. There are many spots where the lanes in the other direction are not visible and many entry points ranging from ramps to small side roads. It's not hard to get distracted and pull into the wrong lanes of traffic.

[Gormy Cuss]

26. Yep.

I could see this happening to someone unfamiliar with the Taconic, especially farther north.

[Cha]

3. How horrific and unfathomably

sad.

[Warpy]

4. We have one of these horror shows out here in NM

every two or three years. Some idiot tanks up at the local bars and is too blotto to realize he's going on the off ramp and is about to wipe out somebody else's family

Usually the drunk survives.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. A person would have to be really drunk to enter the off ramp.

[stray cat]

6. or really tired....

[shadowknows69]

7. Or on a cell phone

[undeterred]

12. Or taken some prescription medication that affected

their mental status.

[left coaster]

34. Drunk and high..

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/05/content_11827254.htm

[SecularMotion]

19. The Taconic is not a freeway with only on and off ramps

while there are entry points with ramps, there are also small rural roads that cross the parkway with minimal signage.

[tabbycat31]

23. at that point of the taconic, there's ramps

Pleasantville is around the area where the Sprain brook parkway becomes the Taconic. It's very much a highway at that point. It does become more rural as you move upstate.

[SecularMotion]

24. I haven't been down that way for a few years now

I mostly travel the north end of the Taconic these days between Dutchess County and the Thruway spur. I do remember making a pit stop at great diner near where the Taconic meets the Sprain Brook it was always confusing getting on and off at that point.

[brendan120678]

31. Exactly...

This didn't happen "upstate," as many of the stories have been reporting.

Having grown up in Binghamton, it's annoying when those Westchester people try to call themselves "upstate." ;-)

[tabbycat31]

32. I never called myself upstate

in government class senior year, we were told that the official dividing line between "upstate" and "downstate' was Poughkeepsie.

[greiner3]

8. Or a republican.

[Captain Hilts]

9. Beautiful road. FDR's only job between polio and governorship. Very sad. nt

[Lucky Luciano]

10. How horrible - I drive on the Taconic a lot to get out of the city on

the weekends. I did not leave the city this weekend. I am glad I did not see this. SO horrible. The Taconic is a beautiful highway - especially after you cross into Dutchess county.

[tabbycat31]

11. ok this hits home for me as Pleasantville, NY is my hometown

[FarCenter]

13. Five children in a van is worse distraction than talking on the cell phone

More than two children should be banned from automobiles.

Since four of the five died in the crash, I'd bet they did not have seat belts or child seats.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. They might have had on seat belts. Hitting head on they hit at the total speed of both cars, 100 to

120 MPH probably.

[Danmel]

15. They were ejected from the vehicle

So it appears the kids were unrestrained. I don't get that at all.

[Danmel]

16. They were ejected from the vehicle

So it appears the kids were unrestrained. I don't get that at all.

[DontTreadOnMe]

18. Oh MY

I grew up in this area and have driven on that part of the Taconic a thousand times. It is a VERY dangerous highway, built for speeds at about 45mph. But everyone drives 70.
There are many curves and hidden hills, I am always cautious about coming around a corner and seeing a stalled car in the middle of the road. I can't imagine seeing a car coming AT ME at 60mph. It must have happened within a second with no time to react at all. What a tragedy.

[Danmel]

20. I know- I've driven the Taconic too

A beautiful road, but a challenging one, too. I can't even fathom the scenario. I also can't imagine driving with kids unrestrained, I really can't. A total tragedy.

[FarCenter]

21. From News Radio 88 website

http://www.wcbs880.com/Crash-Kills-Eight/4875339

State police Investigator Joseph Becerra said the minivan was traveling southbound in the northbound lanes of the Taconic State Parkway near Briarcliff in the afternoon when it struck an SUV and then careened into a third vehicle. The minivan rolled down an embankment, where it burst into flames.

The driver of the minivan and four of the five children inside it were killed, Becerra said. They were all related, he said.

The children who died were ages 2, 5, 7 and 9. The fifth child, age 5, was hospitalized; the child's condition wasn't immediately known.

The three men in the SUV were killed, Becerra said. Two people in the third vehicle were hospitalized.

[NutmegYankee]

22. I remember a horrible on down in Virginia Beach, Va

A drunk sailor left Peabody's bar on the oceanfront and got on I-264 going the wrong way. He ran head on into another car speeding a pregnant women, her husband, and a friend to the hospital because the women was in labor. Everyone died.

[BeyondGeography]

25. Tricky part of the Taconic

Not the parkway itself, but trying to get on the TSP from Route 117, which was where she got on the Parkway. The exit and entry ramps are adjacent (north is the only option where she was trying to head south) and the "wrong way" sign is in the middle and not so hard to misinterpret (you could think it is for the other ramp). Making matters tragically worse, the exit ramp she used to enter the parkway is straight, wide and long (rare for the Taconic) so she no doubt built up a good head of steam before she got on the parkway. The driver was from Long Island and may have been confused by the road itself. I myself have done a double-take trying to get on the parkway from that road and I've been driving in the area for decades.

[npk]

27. We have an area like that in Atlanta

It's called midtown. I am shocked we don't have more head-on collision here in midtown Atlanta, especially from visitors who are driving. I honestly pity the person who is not from here who tries to get back onto the Interstate 85 off W Peachtree St. Unless you are from here you wouldn't even know that it's a one way street until you're locked onto the Buford Highway connector and at that point it's concrete walls and no shoulder on both sides and the walls are so tall and there are so many curves you can't see more than 100 yards in front of you. A driver would literally have no clue that were going the wrong way and would go into a blind curve while another vehicle would be entering the same blind curve from the other direction. Kinda scary.

[BeyondGeography]

28. I've driven that part of the parkway many hundreds of times; it definitely shakes you up

I hope there's a focus on the road itself when this is analyzed, and people stop ragging on this driver for being overwhelmed with too many kids in the car, relying on GPS and whatever else is being tossed around right now. Folks say she should have pulled over...that's fine. But I'm sure she was going 60-65 before she even knew there was a problem.

[npk]

29. You are right. At the point she realized she was going the wrong way

It was likely little that she could do.

[SecularMotion]

30. Further details

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090727/NEWS01/90727008&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

[RamboLiberal]

33. Before Taconic crash, mom Diane Schuler told brother she wasn't feeling well

The driver who went the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway Sunday night causing a horrific crash called her brother two hours earlier to tell him she didn't feel well, police revealed Monday.

Diane Schuler, 36, of West Babylon called her brother, Warren Hance, as she drove home from a camping trip in Sullivan County with her two children and Hance's three daughters.

Hance, who lives in Floral Park and owns the Ford minivan, told his sister to pull over and wait for him to come pick them up, police said, but Schuler kept driving.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/07/27/2009-07-27_before_taconic_crash_mom_diane_schuler_told_brother_she_wasnt_feeling_well.html

[Ohio Joe]

35. This seems to happen a frightening amount of times here in Columbus

I think most of the time it is because of drunk drivers but still... happens way more often then it should... and it is not even like it is easy to get on going the wrong way.