A 66-year-old woman is dead and four other people were hospitalized after a wrong-way driver slammed into oncoming traffic on Staten Island's West Shore Expressway, according to police. A Range Rover traveling northbound ended up in the southbound lanes, setting off a chain-reaction crash that also pulled in a Jeep before the morning was over.
How the Three-Car Crash Unfolded
Police said the Kia Seltos, driven by the 66-year-old woman, was heading southbound on the West Shore Expressway when it struck the Range Rover, which was traveling northbound in the southbound lanes, according to ABC7 Eyewitness News. The Range Rover was operated by a 36-year-old woman. Then, a Jeep driven by a 21-year-old woman, also traveling southbound, struck both the Kia Seltos and the Range Rover, compounding the wreck.
The Kia driver was pronounced dead at the scene, the outlet reported. The 21-year-old Jeep driver, the 36-year-old Range Rover driver, and two Jeep passengers — a 21-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man — were all taken to Richmond University Medical Center, where they were listed in stable condition.
Investigation Continues, No Arrests Made
Police said all of the vehicle operators remained at the scene after the crash, and the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad is now handling the case. No arrests have been made so far, per the same report.
A Familiar and Deadly Stretch of Roadway
Wrong-way driving fatalities have risen in recent national data: the Federal Highway Administration counted 704 deaths in wrong-way crashes in 2022, compared with 445 in 2018. Those figures count people killed, not the total number of crashes. Police have not announced what caused Saturday’s collision. Federal Highway Administration figures provide a broader measure of the danger posed by vehicles traveling against traffic.
This is not the first time the West Shore Expressway has seen a wrong-way driver cause fatal chaos. In a separate incident on the same highway, a car headed north in the southbound lanes struck a tractor-trailer near Arthur Kill Road shortly before 5 a.m., leaving two people dead, including Linden police officer Frank Viggiano, the station reported. Two other Linden officers involved in that crash were hospitalized in critical condition, while the truck driver suffered only minor injuries.
The 2015 crash mentioned above later led to a criminal conviction. In 2017, a jury found former Linden police officer Pedro Abad guilty of aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular assault, manslaughter and other charges in the deaths of fellow officer Frank Viggiano and Joseph Rodriguez. Prosecutors said Abad was intoxicated and speeding when his car struck a tractor-trailer. That case’s outcome does not indicate the cause of Saturday’s crash, which remains under investigation. The 2017 verdict followed the 2015 West Shore Expressway collision.
