17-Car Saw Mill Parkway Pileup Injures Six in Pre-Dawn Accident
Six people were injured Wednesday morning in a 17-car chain-reaction pileup on a blind curve on the Saw Mill Parkway in Mount Kisco.
Westchester County police reported that a motorist was driving a Chevy Avalanche on the southbound side of the parkway just past the Route 133 exit at about 6:40 a.m. when he noticed that a car in front of him was moving slowly around the curve.
The driver of the Chevy slammed on his brakes but lost control of the vehicle, which ran off the road and up an embankment before turning over, said Kieran O’Leary, a spokesman for the county Department of Public Safety.
However, with the overturned SUV still partially on the road, other drivers stopped to avoid striking it, yet others who followed had little time to react in the pre-dawn darkness on the curve, O’Leary said. As cars stopped, other drivers plowed into them from behind.
“There just seemed to be a confluence of factors that contributed to the crash,” O’Leary said.
He said that while it has been suggested that black ice on the roadway may have also played a factor in the accident, that was not immediately confirmed by police Wednesday afternoon.
The identity of the driver of the Chevy was not immediately released, but O’Leary said that he was able to climb out of the vehicle uninjured. However, six other people were taken to the hospital, four of them to Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco and the other two to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla.
O’Leary said that all six complained of neck or back pain but none of the injuries were described as life threatening.
Only one ticket was issued in the mishap to one motorist for driving without a license, he said.
The parkway was closed for several hours until the wreckage could be cleared.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
