14 DAY TRIAL // A woman was killed and four other people sustained injuries in a wrong-way accident on the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York.
New York State Police mention that the victim is 56-year-old Hannah Ayeh-Brachie. She was pronounced dead on the spot when a driver rammed her vehicle at 8:51 p.m. on Tuesday, July 23.
The driver of the vehicle involved in the crash is 69-year-old Michael Schechel of Thiells. He was behind the wheel of a Ford Explorer, Lohud reported.
Ayeh-Brachie was a passenger in a Nissan that was hit frontally as Schechel headed in the wrong direction. The car was being driven by one Newman Ayeh-Brachie of Hillcrest, 57.
Police reports have mentioned that Schechel was traveling south on a northbound lane. Five cars were hit in a chain crash that started with a driver trying to avoid the Explorer.
34-year-old Juan Robles of the Bronx swerved and hit the Nissan that the victim was traveling in. 44-year-old Nancy Gallo of Basking Ridge also tried to stay out of the Explorer's way and hit Robles' vehicle.
40-year-old Thomas Gibson of Poughkeepsie managed to veer out of the way but swiped the side of the rogue driver's car.
Schechel has survived the crash and he is currently in the hospital. While he is stable, police are yet to find out about the motivation for him going the wrong way.
Until now, police know that he had just left a store when he decided to get on the Thruway which connects to ramps for Exits 10, 11 and 12.
Four other people have been hospitalized at Westchester Medical Center and Nyack Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Two of them have had to be extricated from their vehicles.
The crash prompted a six-hour lockdown of the Rockland-bound bridge until Wednesday morning.