July 16, 2005
Tragedy strikes family
Newlyweds, cousin killed in crash that jams traffic
By Mike Dawson and Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
mdawson@th-record.com cmckenna@th-record.com Blooming Grove – A deadly accident yesterday afternoon killed three members of a Hasidic family and shut down Route 17 for five hours. The ripple effect of traffic congestion turned Route 17's connecting highways, byways and back roads in southern Orange County into a steamy virtual parking lot for motorists.
The three victims were from the Satmar Hasidic sect in Willamsburg, Brooklyn, and all have relatives in Kiryas Joel. About 2 p.m., their westbound minivan crossed the median and collided with an eastbound tractor-trailer hauling crushed cars on Route 17 near Exit 128.
The driver of the truck, Eric Delgado, 41, of New Jersey, suffered minor injuries and was in stable condition at the Arden Hill campus of Orange Regional Medical Center, police said.
After the accident, the cab of the truck could be seen lodged in the trees flanking the westbound lanes, its trailer jutting out onto blacktop.
The minivan came to rest in the eastbound lanes. The passenger side of the brown Chevrolet Venture had been crushed. Its seats were shredded into swaths of tan, blood-soaked fabric.
The driver of the van was identified as Abraham Weisz, 34. The passengers were his cousins, Zev Tietielbaum, 23, and his wife, Faigy Tietielbaum, 20, who were recently married. All three were wearing seat belts.
Police said they are investigating the cause of the crash, but why the van crossed the median will likely remain a mystery.
"Unfortunately, the three people that could tell us have died," said New York State Police Capt. Steve Nevins.
The cousins were on their way from Brooklyn to the Satmar boys' camp in Napanoch in Ulster County, according to Gedalye Szegedin, the administrator for Kiryas Joel.
"The community is heartbroken," Szegedin said.
The three were to be buried in the cemetery in Kiryas Joel after brief ceremonies. The quick burials are in conformance with Orthodox tradition, based on the belief that the soul of the deceased does not rest until the body is laid to rest. A funeral consists of washing the body in a ritual bath and dressing the body in white garments. Caskets are simple pine boxes that are covered by a black sheet while being carried to the grave. There is no funeral liturgy, but when time permits there are eulogies.
The families had until 8:15 p.m. yesterday – the beginning of Shabbos – to complete the funerals. Otherwise, they would have to wait until Shabbos ended tomorrow at 9:30 p.m.
The burials could not take place until the blood and all the body parts of the dead were gathered. A group of Orthodox men in white shirts and rubber gloves mixed with police and rescue crews at the scene, attending to the grisly task.
Meanwhile, traffic in the westbound lanes of Route 17 from the Harriman Thruway toll booth to Exit 130 was at a standstill. Many motorists put their vehicles in park and mingled on the grassy median.
Thruway officials and state police said the highway closure was knotting northbound traffic – normally thick with weekenders and rush-hour commuters anyhow – from Harriman south all the way to Manhattan.
Those seeking alternate routes met with crawling traffic jams. Route 17M and most feeder roads from Goshen to Monroe moved at a crawl even after the highways were reopened at 7 p.m.
What would normally be a 45-minute commute during Friday evening rush hour took as many as three hours in some cases yesterday, commuters reported.
And for those coming from New York City, the pace proved even slower.
Harry Fontaine, 78, of Woodridge, boarded a bus at the Port Authority in Manhattan bound for Monticello at 2 p.m. He arrived in Sullivan County at 8:30 p.m.
"Usually this is the peak of traffic for the week," Nevins said. "With this, the (traffic) impact was so far-reaching, from Ulster to Manhattan and all points in between."
Reporters Amy Berkowitz and Sandy Tomcho contributed to this report.