14 DAY TRIAL // Witnesses' descriptions paint a grizzly picture of the night when five cars collided and one woman died because of a driver going the wrong way on the Tappan Zee Bridge on Tuesday.
As we chronicled, 56-year-old Hannah Ayeh-Brachie died in the multiple collision caused by driver Michael Schechel, 69, of Thiells.
His Ford Explorer ran into other vehicle before smashing into the Nissan being driven by the victim's husband.
Schechel has survived the accident and police are currently trying to find out whether he has been driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Doreen Ciborowski, 53, of Thiells tells Lohud that she was returning home from a 13-hour shift as a nurse at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx when she spotted the rogue driver. She was in the center lane and she saw the white SUV coming towards her.
“All I thought to myself is this guy’s on a suicide mission. [...] Either that, or he’s high or drunk,” she recalls.
She described that he was honking his horn at her and she managed to veer out of his way. She also mentions him going over the speed limit.
“He had his lights on and he was beeping at me and I could not believe what I was seeing. [...] He was speeding, I want to say over 60 miles per hour (96 kph) because he flew right by me,” she says.
She pulled over and called 911, but she did not see the crash unravel. She would later hear about the collision from a friend.
According to 33-year-old Christian Evans of South Nyack, Schechel had no intention of stopping and he was acting as if he was testing the pother motorists.
“It was like we were playing ‘chicken’ for that 30 seconds. I saw him. He didn’t make an attempt to move his car.
“I was trying to get his attention. [...] I layed on my horn. He didn’t make any attempt to move or brake,” he adds.