Brooklyn Family Hurt in Thruway Crash Injuring 17 Total

MANCHESTER, NY — The back end of a dump truck hit an overpass on the state Thruway in western New York early Wednesday and two vehicles crashed into the wreckage, injuring five adults and 12 children, three of them seriously, authorities said.

Eastbound traffic on the Thruway was stopped for more than five hours after the 4:30 a.m. accident near Exit 43 in Manchester, 30 miles southeast of Rochester. One of the two lanes was reopened just after 10 a.m. and the other shortly before noon.

Two boys ages 6 and 14 were taken by helicopter to a Rochester hospital. They were listed in guarded condition along with a third child, whose age was not immediately disclosed, state police and hospital officials said.

The dump truck’s empty box lifted up, struck an overpass, sheared off and landed in the highway, state police Sgt. Robin Urbaniak said.

Within minutes, a van carrying Max Itzkowitz, 47, of Brooklyn, his wife Sheron, 41, and eight children ages 2 to 16 sideswiped the detached box, Urbanski said. A second vehicle driven by Yosef Compton of Springfield, N.J., then hit the wreckage, injuring all seven occupants, four of them children ages 4 to 11, she said.

Inspection of the bridge by transportation officials contributed to the delay in reopening the eastbound lanes.

The truck driver escaped injury, and police were trying to determine if the accident was caused by a mechanical problem or operator error.