WANTAGH, N.Y. – Two cars collided when they approached the scene of an earlier fender bender, killing a man who went flying over a concrete divider and a woman who was holding her 3-year-old daughter, police said Wednesday. The victims were apparently exchanging license and insurance information at the time, authorities said.
The girl was in critical condition after the crash at about 11 p.m. Tuesday on the Wantagh State Parkway on Long Island.
The episode began when a vehicle driven by 33-year-old Reina Olivera rear-ended a car traveling southbound, and both vehicles stopped in the left lane.
Nicholas Ramirez, a passenger in a vehicle being driven by his wife, got out of their vehicle and was apparently exchanging information with Olivera, who was holding her daughter, when two other vehicles approached, state police said. When one of those vehicles began to slow down, police said, it was rear-ended by another car driven by 20-year-old Marbin Velasquez.
Velasquez's vehicle then struck Olivera, her child and Ramirez, police said. Ramirez, 61, was thrown across a concrete divider and hit by a northbound vehicle.
Ramirez was pronounced dead at the scene, and Olivera was pronounced dead at a hospital. The 3-year-old was hospitalized in critical condition.
The driver of the Jeep that was in the northbound lanes was treated at a hospital for facial cuts.
State police said there appears to be no criminality, but the investigation was ongoing.
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