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 while going the wrong way on the Southern State Parkway crashed and killed her 9-year-old son, the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office said.
The crash early Thursday morning shut down the eastbound lanes in the area of Exit 42 in Islip. 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, said New York State Police Major Stephen J. Udice. 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
A Suffolk County Sheriff's Office patrol officer spotted the wrong-way driver "well prior to that collision" and tried to pull her over, but she did not stop and sped up, according to Udice.
First responders pulled the boy out of the back seat of the car and continued performing CPR on him en route to the hospital before he was pronounced dead.
"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. She has not yet been charged.
"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.
