Fatal accident shuts down part of Northway

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New York State Police investigators and others examine the scene of a fatal single-car accident in the northbound lane of I-87 about a mile north of the Westport Exit. Responding were fire, rescue and EMTs from Elizabethtown-Lewis, Wadhams, and Westport, as well as DOT personnel, Essex County Sherrif's Dept., and NYS Police. Alvin Reiner

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September 4, 2009

By KIM SMITH DEDAM and ALVIN REINER The Press Republican Fri Sep 04, 2009, 03:57 PM EDT

WESTPORT — One person was killed and two others critically hurt in a minivan crash Friday on the Adirondack Northway in Westport.

State Police said Grigory Strijevsky, 55, of Brooklyn was driving north on Interstate 87 at about 10:15 a.m. in a 2001 Honda Odyssey minivan when it went off the west shoulder of the road and overturned multiple times.

His wife, Sophia, who was sitting in the middle row of the van, was thrown from the vehicle. A 6-year-old girl was also ejected.

The van landed crumpled but upright against trees in the median.

Mrs. Strijevsky, who was 53, was pronounced dead at the accident site by Essex County Coroner W. Robert Heustis.

An autopsy was to be performed at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake.

The child who was thrown from the car suffered only minor injuries. She was taken to Elizabethtown Community Hospital for initial treatment.

Also taken there were three other passengers, Marina Suleymanov, 30; Vera Zakurskaya, 59; and a 3-year-old girl, all from Brooklyn.

Life Flight helicopters flew Suleymanov and Zakurskaya in rapid succession from Elizabethtown Community to Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington at about 11:30 a.m. Both were suffering from critical injuries.

State Police Capt. John H. Tibbitts Jr. said two children were not seriously hurt because they were secured in car seats. But they and Mr. Strijevsky were taken by ambulance to Fletcher Allen for precautionary treatment.

State Police did not have the names of the children available Friday.

The travelers were members of an extended family heading north from the New York City area, Tibbitts said.

State Police responded after numerous cell-phone calls came in reporting a one-car rollover at about milepost 119 of the Northway.

Communication along that stretch of Interstate is supported by new cell towers at Meadowmount School of Music and in Westport.

Emergency-service personnel responded from Westport, Wadhams and Elizabethtown-Lewis fire departments, the Sheriff’s Department and the Department of Transportation.

One passenger trapped in the van had to be removed by Elizabethtown firefighters using the Jaws of Life extrication tool.

The northbound lane was closed at exit 31 for hours, while first-responders dealt with the accident and a State Police Accident Reconstruction Team did its work.

E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at:

kdedam@pressrepublican.com