Authorities ID 75-Year-Old Driver, Victims In Wrong-Way Hutch Crash

RYE BROOK, NY — Officials have identified the victims involved in an early Monday morning wrong-way crash on the Hutchinson River Parkway.

Chief James Luciano, from the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, which is responsible for policing the parkways in Westchester County, said the wrong-way driver remains hospitalized at Westchester Medical Center. She has been identified as 75-year-old Joan Feinstein, of Rye Brook.

Feinstein is in critical condition, but is likely to survive, according to officials. She suffered serious lower extremity injuries and serious internal injuries.

Feinstein is the former mayor of Rye Brook, according to reports in the New Haven Register and News 12 Westchester. Patch has not yet independently verified this information.

Luciano said Feinstein was driving a 2024 Mercedes sedan southbound in the northbound lanes of travel, after midnight on Monday, when she collided with another vehicle.

The vehicle police say she struck was a 2018 Dodge Durango driven by 49-year-old Mordechai Sandman, of New Haven. The passengers were his 46-year-old wife Miriam, and their three children, ages 25, 17, and 12. All but one of those in the car were injured, but the injuries were considered non-life-threatening.

The Hutchinson River Parkway was closed for hours while the accident investigation took place overnight. Traffic was diverted off the northbound parkway onto Lincoln Avenue until 7 a.m., when all lanes were reopened.

Luciano said the full circumstances surrounding the crash remain under investigation by the Westchester County Accident Investigation Team and General Investigations Unit. Police are said to have had very limited conversation with both drivers due to their serious injuries at the time.

Luciano says there appears to be adequate signage in the area on all exits and entrances to the parkway.

According to Westchester County Executive George Latimer, the Hutchinson River Parkway is not operated by Westchester County. The highway is owned and operated by the NYS Department of Transportation.

Latimer said county public safety officials would be discussing safety issues with NYSDOT. He said the age of the parkways in Westchester is a growing concern, pointing out that most were built between the 1920s and the 1940s, and were never really meant to have the volume of traffic or the speed of traffic that they now accommodate.

The county executive said that the parkways are not as engineered as interstate highway standards call for today, but he said there are more things that can be done to improve safety.