Woman & Taxi Driver Die In L.I.E. Crash
An Ozone Park taxi cab driver and a Utah woman were killed when their ride was involved in a collision with a sportscar and a garbage truck on the Long Island Expressway in Maspeth early last Saturday morning, June 2, police reported.
Law enforcement sources said 46- year-old Mohamed Hussain of 76th Street and one of his two passengers, 60-year-old Suzanne Nicholson of Ogden, Utah, sustained fatal injuries after their cab rear-ended another vehicle and was then smashed by a garbage truck incapable of stopping in time on the wet roadway.
Nicholson’s 11-year-old grandson, with whom she was riding in the cab, was hospitalized in stable condition with injuries not considered to be life-threatening; according to published reports, she sustained her fatal injuries while physically shielding her grandson from the carnage.
Authorities said the gruesome accident occurred at around 12:30 a.m. last Saturday along the Long Island Expressway’s westbound lanes near 66th Street, between the Grand Av- enue and Hamilton Place overpasses.
According to information obtained by police, Hussain was operating his 2008 yellow Ford Crown Victoria cab in the left westbound lane. Reportedly, he had picked up Nicholson and her grandson at Kennedy Airport moments earlier and were on their way to a hotel in Manhattan.
Police said Hussain’s cab then smacked into the rear of a 1995 Porsche 911 sedan driven by a 33- year-old man in the same lane. The impact of the collision caused the Porsche to roll over on its driver’s side, while the cab then veered into the right lane.
At that moment, law enforcement sources said, the taxi was struck by a Mack garbage truck operated by a 61-year-old man. Despite efforts to stop the rig, police noted, the truck was unable to do so due to the slick conditions of the pavement.
Members of the 104th precinct, NYPD Highway Patrol Unit 3, Emergency Services Unit 10, Squad co. 288, Engine Co. 259, Ladder companies 128 and 140, Rescue 4 and Battalion 45 responded to the scene along with EMS units.
Both Hussain and Nicholson were transported to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where they were pronounced dead on arrival from serious body trauma. Nicholson’s 11-year-old grandson was also brought to Elmhurst Hospital for treatment of broken bones, a concussion and other injuries.
Neither the driver of the Porsche nor the garbage truck operator were injured in the accident, it was reported.
An inquiry by the NYPD Accident Investigation Squad is ongoing, police said.
