One person was killed in wrong-I’m way Taconic State Parkway crash Thursday, Jan. 22, in the town of Mount Pleasant, New York State Police said.
At approximately 11:39 p.m., Thursday, New York State Police troopers from Hawthorne responded to a wrong-way collision northbound on the Taconic near mile marker 3.7.
According to a news release, a preliminary investigation determined that a 2021 Infiniti driven by off-duty NYPD officer Tiffany P. Howell, 47 of Warwick, was traveling southbound in the northbound lanes when it struck a 2024 Toyota operated by 61-year-old Manuel Boitel, of Peekskill, head-on.
Boitel was taken to Westchester Medical Center where he was pronounced deceased. Howell was hospitalized with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries.
Since Howell is an NYPD officer, as required under NYS Executive Law Section 70-b, the New York State Attorney General’s Office has been notified of the incident.
According to online records, Howell has been a sergeant since 2022, assigned since July to Crime Control Strategies. She joined the NYPD in January 2008. A spokesperson for the NYPD told reporters Howell’s duty status is currently “modified.”
The investigation remains ongoing. Police are asking for anyone who may have witnessed the incident to call the New York State Police Hawthorne Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 914-742-6057.
The crash occurred about half a mile from where a fiery wrong-way crash claimed eight lives on July 26, 2009. Diane Schuler of Long Island drove south in the northbound lanes and crashed into an SUV, killing herself, her 2-year-old daughter, three nieces and three men from Yonkers, the occupants of the SUV. Her 5-year-old son was the only survivor.
Contributing: lohud’s Jonathan Bandler
(This story was updated with new information.)
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: One dead after Taconic crash involving off-duty NYPD officer
Reporting by Ashley Catherine Fontones, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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