Police probe fatal Thruway crash that killed 2 in Ramapo
The crash occurred just before 10 a.m. Friday near the ramp for Exit 14B
RAMAPO — Police are investigating a multi-truck crash that left two men dead and shut down the southbound New York State Thruway for nearly nine hours on Friday.
The driver of a mattress box truck, 33-year-old Rambaran Hemankumar, and his passenger, 20-year-old Juan Soto, both of Queens, were killed in the crash, which occurred shortly before 10 a.m., state police said. The two were traveling in the northbound right lane of the Thruway and cut across two lanes, hitting another box truck and a pickup truck before crossing the guardrail into oncoming traffic, where they were hit by a tractor-trailer near Exit 14B, police said.
Soto was pronounced dead at the scene. Hemankumar was cut out of the truck and taken in extremely critical condition to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Related: Taconic drivers 'terrified' of parkway
Readers react: Just how safe is the Taconic Parkway?
Another person, a 43-year-old man, was admitted to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, according to a hospital official. Police said he was the driver of the tractor-trailer and was in stable condition after suffering serious injuries.
Police said the drivers of the pickup truck and second box truck were not injured.
One of the pickup truck’s three passengers, a 12-year-old, was being treated at the Suffern hospital, but would likely be released before the end of the day.
Police closed the Thruway between Exits 15 and 14B. The closure left numerous cars and trucks stuck behind the accident while police investigated the scene.
It wasn’t until around 2:30 p.m. that police began to allow those drivers stuck behind the crash to turn around, head north in the southbound lanes and get off the Thruway at Exit 15.
While northbound lanes were open during the evening commute, rubbernecking and the typical Friday rush snarled traffic, police said. The southbound lanes remained closed until about 7 p.m.
Marnie Zansitis was trapped in the traffic jam for nearly four hours. The Mahwah resident had entered the Thruway at Exit 15 just before the crash occurred. When Zansitis spoke to The Journal News early Friday afternoon, she and her two children — Shane, 4, and Danica, 4 months — had been stuck in her Toyota without food for hours.
“I’m totally freaking out right now,” Zansitis said. “I have no food, no formula for the baby. Nothing.”
Danica had a full bottle before breakfast and napped much of the time, her mother said. Shane, whom she was taking to child care in Northvale, New Jersey, started to get fussy, Zansitis said.
“This is a nightmare,” she said. “I do this drive all the time. It usually takes 20 minutes.”
Steve Rothaupt, 26, of Chestnut Ridge, said he was heading to Suffern for his next stop as a Snapple salesman when he got on the Thruway northbound in Nanuet at about 10:15 a.m.
“My father is a firefighter in Tallman, and my mother texted me to tell me, ‘Don’t get on the Thruway,’” Rothaupt said. “But that was unfortunately about a minute or two late.”
Rothaupt added that his father, also named Steve, responded to the incident. The younger Rothaupt tweeted at 12:45 p.m.: “Sitting in my car with it off on the thruway. That's how much we aren't moving.”
About three and a half hours later, he finally got off the highway, he said.
Local roads in Suffern and Sloatsburg also were jammed Friday as drivers tried to avoid the Thruway.
Randi Colton, who was trying to get home to Sloatsburg from Suffern at around 12:30 p.m, encountered heavy traffic on Route 202, East Maple Avenue and Route 17.
“It was just bumper-to-bumper,” Colton said.
Emergency agencies that responded to the crash site included Rockland Paramedics and firefighters from Hillburn and Tallman, who handled the extrication. Rockland's HazMat team was also at the site Friday afternoon helping to transfer fuel out of the overturned trucks so it wouldn’t get on the roadway.
State police said the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit and Collision Reconstruction Unit had also responded.
Staff writers Akiko Matsuda and Matt Spillane contributed to this report.\