A Springfield Gardens man and a passenger in his car died after they were involved in a multi-vehicle chain-reaction crash on the Belt Parkway near Kennedy Airport on the morning of Saturday, July 5.
Noah Thompson, 24, of 179th Street, was behind the wheel of a white BMW 428i traveling eastbound on the Belt Parkway in Howard Beach at 6:05 a.m. when he failed to navigate the roadway approaching the Nassau Expressway exit.
The NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad determined Thompson lost control of the car and collided with the median divider. The impact sent the BMW airborne and into the westbound lanes of the Belt Parkway into oncoming traffic, where it smashed into a Honda CR-V and a Hyundai Tucson. Thompson’s BWM burst into flames. Multiple FDNY units responded to the scene to extinguish the flames.
EMS rushed Thompson and the drivers of the two other vehicles to One Brooklyn Health-Brookdale University Hospital, where Thompson was listed in critical condition. The 44-year-old man driving the Honda and a 34-year-old woman driving the Hyundai were both listed in stable condition.
There were four passengers in Thompson’s BMW. EMS transported a 21-year-old woman, a 25-year-old man, and a 29-year-old man to One Brooklyn Health-Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, where they were listed in stable condition.
The fourth passenger in Thompson’s BMW, a 22-year-old woman, was rushed by EMS to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she was listed in critical condition. She later succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead, police said. She was later identified as Jewel Perez, a mother of two young children, from East 93rd Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Thompson later succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead, police said..
There are no arrests, and the investigation by the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad remains ongoing.
