By Dustin Brown
A Maspeth man was killed and his wife seriously injured Friday when their car was crushed by a trailer that unhinged from its cab on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, police said.
Peggy Morgello, 46, of 53-93 62nd St., was listed Monday in serious but stable condition at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, hospital spokesman James Saunders said. Her husband, Thomas Morgello, 54, was killed in the accident, which tied up traffic along the BQE for hours during the early part of the Friday evening commute.
The 1992 International truck was eastbound on the BQE shortly after 3 p.m. when its trailer buckled and detached from the cab, overturning onto the 1999 Honda driven by Peggy Morgello, police said.
The driver of the truck was issued summonses for the truck’s broken spring, a defective window, a defective horn and a defective clearance light, police said.
Both Peggy and Thomas Morgello were administrative employees at the Board of Education, according to neighbors.
The Morgellos were married on April 24, 1999 at the Transfiguration Roman Catholic Church in Maspeth, where Peggy Morgello and her family have worshiped for decades.
Their pastor, Rev. James T. Rooney, said after a hospital visit with Peggy Morgello that she had been conscious immediately after the accident and could remember being helped by bystanders who stopped their cars along the BQE.
“Her recall of the goodness of all the people who wanted to help and their encouragement — she has very clear memories of that,” he said. “The people were spectacular in their words of encouragement to her.”
Neighbors of the couple reacted with quiet dismay to the accident, with many saying they had heard and read news reports about the crash long before learning the Morgellos had been involved in it.
“Everybody is very upset, because they all know her well,” said one neighbor who lives down the street from the couple.
Neighbors said Peggy Morgello has spent her entire life in her family’s home on 62nd Street, where she had been living with her husband following the deaths of her parents in the late 1990s.
“They were a lovely couple and very devoted to one another,” said another neighbor who lives next door to the Morgellos. “Everybody feels it.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
