Stranded Motorist Killed,

 3 Injured in Bruckner Crash

 

 

By David Greene

 

Police are investigating how a driver was sent over a highway divider to his death 100 feet below.

Police were called to the westbound lanes of the Bruckner Expressway at Austin Place at 6:39 a.m., on Sunday, November 24. Sources say a 1996 Toyota Camry broke down on the elevated roadway when it was struck by a gray 2010 Honda Insight. Abubakar Saleh, 46, of Brooklyn, was standing in front of his disabled vehicle when the speeding car slammed into the vehicle from behind.

Saleh was declared dead at the scene. His body would lay on the street below, under a sheet and laying next to a lone sneaker for several hours as police shutdown most of the upper and lower portions of the busy highway as the NYPD performed it's investigation.

An unidentified 22-year-old victim, who was inspecting the vehicle with Saleh at the time of the crash, was transported to Jacobi Hospital with serious head trauma and was removed in critical condition. A second passenger in the vehicle, an unidentified 15-year-old boy suffered minor injuries.

The driver of the Honda also suffered minor injuries.

Police have not yet released his name, but say that the driver stated he did not see the vehicle in time to stop and so far no charges have been filed, but the investigation into the crash continues.

Sources close to the investigation say the driver of the striking vehicle is an employee of the New York City Department of Sanitation, but was off-duty at the time of the crash.

The NYPD could not confirm a report that a second crash took place when a, "rubbernecking," driver looking at the accident, struck a marked NYPD SUV.

Back on December 4, 2009, Suejas Estrada was killed when she was ejected from the window of her SUV, off the elevated portion of the roadway after a 3-car collision that also involved NBC newscaster Tom Brokaw.

The site where Saleh died was steps away from where Abigail Lino, a young mother from Manhattan was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver on August 31. Lino had been attending an all-girls party at the clubhouse of the Black Falcon's motorcycle club when a partygoer yelled, "Gun," creating a panic, when Lino stepped into the street and was killed.

Police would later charge the driver in that crash.