8 killed in second wrong-way crash in NY parkway

Eight people have been killed after a minivan collided head-on with a mini SUV and careened into another in Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York, Press TV reported.

A Ford Windstar minivan was traveling southbound in the northbound lanes of the Taconic State Parkway in Westchester County on Sunday afternoon when it struck a Chevy Trailblazer, State Police Investigator Joseph Becerra said.

The third vehicle, a Chevy Tracker, was hit after the minivan lost control. According to Becerra, the crash impact sent the minivan rolling down an embankment, where it burst into flames.

The driver of the minivan and four children aged 2, 5, 7 and 9 were killed. There was another 5-year-old inside the Windstar who survived the crash and was taken to hospital.

The three men in the Trailblazer were also killed while two people in the Tracker received injuries, Becerra said.

The parkway, which stretches about 100 miles from Valhalla, in Westchester County, to East Chatham, in Columbia County, was closed to traffic in both directions for hours.

The accident was the second wrong-way crash on the parkway during the day. Five people were injured in an early Sunday morning collision between two vehicles, one of which was headed northbound in the southbound lanes.

The first accident occurred about 32 km (20 miles) north of the fatal one.

The scenic Taconic State Parkway was built over a long period of time in stages beginning in the early 1920s.