What to Know
- The crash on Webster Avenue caused major delays as many commuters headed back to work Tuesday following the long holiday weekend
- Police said two tractor-trailers and two passenger vehicles were involved in the crash
- Three men were pronounced dead at the scene and several other people were injured
Three men died and five other people were hurt, some of them seriously, in a multi-vehicle wreck on the Cross Bronx Expressway early Tuesday that snarled the post-holiday commute.
Police said a tractor-trailer on the eastbound side of the highway stopped fairly abruptly near Webster Avenue around 5:45 a.m. because of traffic ahead. A pickup truck behind the 18-wheeler also stopped, but another tractor-trailer behind the pickup couldn't stop in time and caused a chain-reaction collision.
The second 18-wheeler hit the pickup truck and a Toyota Corolla, launching the smaller vehicle onto the center divide of the highway and trapping the pickup under the tractor-trailer, police said.
Three men in the pickup were pronounced dead at the scene. Two of them have been identified as 21-year-old Khalil J. Walker of Tobbyhanna, Pennsylvania, and 51-year-old Henry Walker of Livingston, New Jersey. The identity of the 58-year-old man is pending family notification.
Two other passengers in that truck were taken to a hospital in serious condition, along with one person in the Toyota.
The tractor-trailer drivers, and a passenger in one of the 18-wheelers, were not hurt. Police say alcohol did not appear to be a factor in the crash, and all drivers involved had clean records and valid licenses.
A Goya truck was involved in the collision, though it wasn't clear if it was the tractor-trailer that initiated the chain-reaction crash or the one that had stopped in the road. The company declined to comment on the accident.
All eastbound lanes of the busy highway were closed through the morning as authorities investigated. Delays of up to two hours were reported at the inbound George Washington Bridge; traffic was also stalled on the westbound Cross Bronx.
Transit officials reported a backup of nearly 4 miles on the northbound New Jersey Turnpike approaching the bridge.
Officials say the investigation is ongoing.
