A 29-year-old woman died early Sunday morning, September 27, after a speeding SUV slammed into a concrete retaining wall on the eastbound Prospect Expressway at Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. Police identified the victim as Tyasia Velox, who was pronounced deceased at the hospital following the crash, which happened shortly after 4 a.m. Two other passengers survived with injuries, while a fourth occupant walked away unharmed.
According to News12 Brooklyn, the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee was traveling at high speed when it crashed, police said. The NYPD Highway District Collision Investigation Squad determined that the vehicle failed to navigate the road before striking the wall. The SUV carried four people total: a 28-year-old male driver and three passengers, including another 28-year-old man and two 29-year-old women.
Survivors Taken to Maimonides, One Refuses Treatment
The driver and the 28-year-old male passenger were taken to Maimonides Hospital, where they were listed in stable condition and expected to recover, according to the News12 report. The other 29-year-old passenger refused medical attention at the scene. No charges had been filed as of the report, and the investigation was ongoing.
A Stretch of Highway With a Troubled History
The Prospect Expressway has also seen serious collisions. In February 2021, ABC7 New York and NBC New York reported on a seven-vehicle crash on the expressway that injured multiple people, including some described as in grave or critical condition. The reports cover the same incident, not two separate crashes, and do not establish that it occurred at the exact site of this fatal collision.
The earlier crash reports provide corridor context, while citywide fatality figures offer a broader view of traffic safety trends; neither establishes what caused this crash.
How Citywide Traffic Deaths Have Changed
According to the New York City Department of Transportation, the city recorded 205 traffic deaths in 2025, 19 percent fewer than the 253 recorded in 2024 and the lowest total since record-keeping began in 1910. Separately, the NYPD's citywide TrafficStat report covering September 28 through October 4, 2026, lists 151 year-to-date traffic fatalities in 2026, compared with 160 at the same point in 2025—a decrease of nine, or 5.62 percent.
The NYPD Highway District Collision Investigation Squad is continuing to investigate how the crash unfolded.
