Editor’s note: This story appears in the May 3-16 print edition of the Norwood News. Earlier today, the State Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald said they would take immediate interim measures to increase safety on the parkway, installing concrete barriers, installing signage and striping the approaches and decking around the area where Sunday’s crash occurred. We’ll include the full press release in a subsequent post.
In one of the more horrific crashes in recent memory, seven family members were killed on Sunday, April 29 when their minivan plunged 50 feet from the overpass of the Bronx River Parkway and landed in an unused portion of the Bronx Zoo.
“I’ve been in the fire department for 30 years. Sometimes you come upon events that are horrific,” FDNY Deputy Chief Ronald Werner told reporters. “This was one of them.”
The victims were identified as driver Maria Gonzalez, 45; her sister Maria Nunez, 39, their parents, Ana Julia Martinez, 81 and Jacob Nunez, 85, and three children, Jocelyn Gonzalez, 10, Niely Rosario, and Marly Rosario, 3.
A shaken Juan Gonzalez walked past reporters and cameramen as he returned to his Soundview home after learning the heart-wrenching news.
“Why am I still here? I don’t want to live anymore,” the grief-stricken father and widower said.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., said he plans to investigate road conditions on the Bronx River Parkway. A similar accident occurred on the same stretch of highway last year; both passengers in that incident survived.
Those wishing to donate funds to the surviving family members can send checks to: Juan D. Gonzalez, c/o Chase Bank, 1265 Castle Hill Avenue, Bronx, NY, 10462.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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How terribly sad this story is! If only that darned curb hadn’t been there, maybe the whole thing could have been avoided.
Did anyone reading this see this quote by the AAA spokesman?
“Highways are not supposed to have curbs, and not only is there a curb there, it’s particularly high,” Sinclair said. “The guardrail would need to be higher for that area because you’re trying to keep vehicles from flying off because of the 60-foot drop.”
Just goes to show how easily this accident could have been avoided.
Saw that quote in this editorial about the Bronx river parkway accident