Winter has come to New York, and the lawyers at Block O’Toole & Murphy urge all NYC motorists to drive carefully, especially during bad weather. A massive pileup last Sunday on the Bronx River Parkway illustrates how ice and snow can quickly lead to serious motor vehicle accidents.
The multi-car accident injured 36 people around 11 PM in Westchester County, just north of NYC. Ice and snow are being blamed for the incident, which could have resulted in many more serious injuries had traffic been traveling more quickly. Thankfully, drivers were moving more slowly than normal because of the icy roadway.
A spokesperson for the Westchester County Police said that there is a very slight downgrade where the accident occurred, and given the icy condition of the roadway, that might have been enough to trigger the accident in which cars were piled on top of each other.
New Yorkers were not the only motorists to be affected by the unusually icy conditions last weekend. Drivers across the United States were stranded or involved in multi-vehicle accidents because of the ice and snow.
Such incidents included a 50-car pile-up on the Pennsylvania Turnpike left one driver dead and others stranded for hours in their vehicles. The motorist who died was hit by another vehicle after he got out of his car to inspect the damage, according to news reports.
A multiple-vehicle accident on I-10 in West Texas left at least one person dead and many more stranded in their cars for more than 24 hours. Another crash in Maryland involved a tractor trailer that spun out of control on I-81 and was hit by another tractor trailer that flipped and spilled its load while trying to avoid the first truck. Vehicles attempting to avoid the trucks ran off the highway.
Source: ABC News, “New York Car Pile-Up Latest in Series of Icy Crashes,” Dec. 9, 2013.