A vehicle carrying three off-duty police officers crash head-on into a tractor-trailer after driving the wrong way down the Staten Island highway. Video footage seems to show that the vehicle in which the three were riding was traveling the wrong way on the highway just moments before the crash.
According to reports, the driver, Pedro Abad, 27, had posted a photo online of three shot glasses filled with “Jack Daniels Fire on the house.” Police received a 911 call at 4:51 a.m. about the crash. Video surveillance from a gas station camera shows a vehicle traveling the wrong way on a service road that runs adjacent to the highway. The video is time-stamped 4:48 a.m., only moments before the 911 call came through. Witnesses state that one tractor-trailer swerved out of the way of the vehicle heading the wrong way on the West Shore Expressway. However, a second tractor trailer did not have enough time to veer. The vehicle carrying the off-duty officers hit the second truck head-on.
Abad suffered severe and extensive injuries. He and passenger Patrik Kudlac, 23, are currently at the hospital in critical condition. Both are Linden police officers. The other two passengers, Linden police officer Frank Viggiano, 28, and civilian Joe Rodriguez, 28, were killed. The truck driver suffered minor injuries.
The crash is still under investigation. However Abad’s blood has been drawn and the New York Police Department has applied for a warrant to test his blood-alcohol level. The car’s black box is also being examined by investigators to determine how fast the car was traveling at the time of the accident.
Linden Police Chief James Schulhafer stated, “We were all young once and I’m sure we’ve all done stupid things in our life. That being said, because this is an ongoing investigation, it would be way too premature to speculate on what caused this accident.”
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