Southern State Parkway crash kills 9-year-old boy. His mother, the driver, is suspected of DUI.
ISLIP, N.Y. -- A woman suspected of driving under the influence crashed while going the wrong way on the Southern State Parkway and killed her 9-year-old son, New York State Police said.
The crash on Long Island shut down the eastbound lanes in the area of Exit 42 in Islip at around 2:30 a.m. Thursday. Traffic was being diverted off the highway as emergency crews responded to the scene.
Four cars were involved in the crash and all suffered extensive damage, New York State Police Major Stephen J. Udice said at a news conference.
The engine of the vehicle going the wrong way was thrown into the woods "some distance from the collision point," he said.
Officer tried to stop wrong-way driver
Police believe the 32-year-old woman drove about five miles in the wrong direction on Sunrise Highway before she got on the Southern State Parkway.
A Suffolk County Sheriff's Office patrol officer spotted her "well prior to [the] collision" and tried to pull her over, but she did not stop and sped up, Udice said. By the time the officer caught up, she had already crashed.
First responders pulled the boy out of the back seat of the SUV and continued performing CPR on him en route to the hospital before he was pronounced dead. He was wearing a seat belt, police said.
"The state troopers did their best to save the boy's life and this was a traumatic experience for all involved," Udice said.
The woman was being treated at the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Charges were pending.
"Yes, she was given some field sobriety tests. I'm not going to get into the results of those yet. What I can tell you is that she has not been charged, but that doesn't mean that she won't be charged," Udice said.
Three other drivers were hospitalized with injuries that also appeared to be non-life-threatening, police said. There were no passengers in their cars.