The New York Post reports that six members of a Bronx church were killed and eight others injured in a horrific church van crash on the New York Thruway in Orange County today, state troopers said.
The tragic crash occurred at about 3 p.m. near milepost 50.7 in the Thruway’s northbound lane, between exit 16 in Harriman and exit 17 in Newburgh.
The impact of the crash flung passengers out of the van, which was carrying 14 people.
Traffic was backed up on the highway for hours as rescuers evacuated the injured and cleared the dead from the scene.
Three helicopters were called in to evacuate the most critically injured. Others were taken to hospitals by ambulance.
Four of the injured were taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, and four to Westchester County Medical Center in Valhalla, authorities said.
All four taken to Good Samaritan were female, two of whom were in critical condition, hospital spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said.
A law-enforcement source said that the passengers of the van were mostly people in the early 20s.
More details here
UPDATE: Joy Fellowship Christian Assembly Van Crashes Killing 6
The tragic wreck decimated the Joy Fellowship Christian Assembly and left congregants, dozens of whom gathered at the Bronxwood church last night, in mourning.
“This will have a severe impact on the community,” said one solemn parishioner at the church on East Gun Hill Road. “It’s just devastating.”
The church was led by Bishop Simon White and his wife, Zelda, also a minister, whose distraught family comforted each other at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla after hearing the news.
“They were well loved,” Zelda’s sobbing sister, Verine Stewart, told The Post as she comforted a relative who had to be placed in a wheelchair after learning of the deaths. Zelda’s daughter, Charlene Mandrie, was in critical condition at Westchester Medical, where two other victims were hospitalized.
White, who preached around the world, had eight children and ran three churches in the area. The church’s associate pastor, Titus McGhie, and congregants Avril Murray, Evelyn Ferguson and Elaine Reid also died.
“Pastor McGhie would always reach out and talk to you,” said Avriel Kelly, 40, while mourning at the church last night. She described White as, “a father figure. He was a teacher, a confidant. He always had words of wisdom.”
The 14 church members were traveling to an anniversary banquet for a sister church, First Light Christian Assembly, at the Water’s Edge Inn near Schenectady, when the left rear tire blew out near Newburgh at about 3 p.m.
The driver lost control of the 1997 Ford van, which drifted into a rumble strip and then flipped over the grass median.
“We watched this van flip over
about seven times going about 80 mph,” wrote Heather Benson on her Facebook page. “It was so frightening.”
The impact flung passengers from the van, which came to rest upside down. Victims were strewn across the roadway, some as far as 20 feet from the vehicle. The driver, Bernard Lattibuediere, survived and was being interviewed, cops said, but he was not expected to be charged. One of the critically injured, Miriam Edwards, was airlifted to Jacobi Hospital in The Bronx.
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