A three-vehicle fire has been reported on the Cross Bronx Expressway at around 12.30 on Nov. 29, 2022. Video courtesy of the Citizens’ App.

Police later said the fire broke out at around 00.34 a.m. on Tuesday and that officers responded to a 911 call of a motor vehicle collision on the southbound Cross Bronx Expressway, underneath University Avenue, located in the 46th Precinct.

 

“Upon arrival, officers observed a three-vehicle collision within the center travel lane,” a police spokesperson said, adding that all three vehicles were on fire.

Police added that EMS responded to the location and pronounced one of the vehicle drivers, an unidentified woman of a Range Rover SUV, deceased at the scene. Further investigation by the NYPD Highway District Collision Investigation Squad determined that a tractor trailer, driven by a 43-year-old man, was initially struck from behind by the Land Rover.

 

Police said both vehicles remained at the scene, stopped in the center lane. While at the location, they said a third vehicle, a tractor trailer driven by a 53-year-old man, also traveling southbound on the Cross Bronx Expressway, struck the rear of the Land Rover. Police said this caused “it to impact the first vehicle and, in turn, partially enter the first tractor trailer, overturning in the process.”

 

The spokesperson said, “As a result of the second collision, all three vehicles became either engulfed or partially engulfed in flames.” The two drivers of the tractor trailers were not injured, and remained at the scene, police said. There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing.

 

All lanes had been blocked for a few hours after the incident occurred, according to State officials. In addition, the northbound side had two lanes blocked due to NYPD activity for a duration.

 

Video posted by users of the Citizens’ App showed the vehicles engulfed in flames and multiple firefighters at the scene.

The FDNY later reported being alerted to a motor vehicle accident at 00:27 a.m. on Exit 2A of the eastbound Cross Bronx Expressway, involving two tractor trailers and one car, all on fire. They said 12 units, comprising 60 fire personnel responded to the scene and placed the fire under control at 1:59 a.m. They added that one person was deceased upon arrival by the FDNY.

 

Later on Tuesday afternoon, police and NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) released further information about the incident, writing that police had responded to the 911 call regarding the collision at 00.24 a.m. on the westbound Cross Bronx Expressway at University Avenue.

 

Officials said the fatal female victim, the driver of a black 2019 Land Rover SUV, was 49 years old. She was identified as Shelly Vilsaint of Bayonne, NJ.

 

They said the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad determined that the 2013 tractor-trailer which was first struck from behind by the Land Rover, was driven by a 43-year-old man.

 

The third vehicle was identified as a 2015 tractor trailer, driven by a 53-year-old man, and had also been traveling westbound on the Cross Bronx Expressway.

 

In collision investigations, the NYPD handles any criminal aspects of the investigation, while DOT reviews the street design at the locations of such crashes.

 

On Nov. 30, based on the prevailing weather forecast, MTA Bridges and Tunnels implemented a ban on empty tractor-trailers and tandem trucks beginning, Nov. 30 from noon through 11:59 p.m.

 

Pedestrian walkways at the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge and the Henry Hudson Bridge will remain open as weather conditions permit, though others across the city were ordered closed.

 

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

All calls are strictly confidential.