Pileup on New York`s Long Island Expressway kills 1, injures 33

USPA News - An elderly woman was killed on the Long Island Expressway in New York on Wednesday afternoon in a major pileup involving a tractor-trailer and 34 other vehicles, a police commissioner said on Thursday. More than 30 others were also injured.

The accident happened at approximately 2:38 p.m. local time on Wednesday when a tractor-trailer, driving eastbound on the Long Island Expressway in the Suffolk County hamlet of Shirley, struck a number of cars. The initial collision caused a chain-reaction which involved dozens of vehicles. A total of 35 vehicles were involved in the pileup, according to the Suffolk County Police Department. The tractor-trailer, which was carrying storm debris and was being driven by 42-year-old Raymond Simoneau of Rockingham, Vermont, caught fire along with two other vehicles. An unidentified 68-year-old woman from Blue Point who was driving a Toyota Camry was killed in the pileup. "The woman was pronounced dead at the scene by a physician assistant from the Office of The Suffolk County Medical Examiner," said Suffolk County Police Department Commissioner Edward Webber. Webber said a total of 33 people were also injured and transported to area hospitals, including Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, Brookhaven Memorial Hospital in East Patchogue, and Stony Brook University Hospital and St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson. At least one of those injured, a 57-year-old man, was said to be in a serious condition. The tractor-trailer and several other vehicles were impounded for safety checks, but the exact cause of the pileup was not immediately known. "The investigation is continuing," the police spokesman said, adding that the expressway remained closed in both directions for a number of hours.