New Details Emerge In Crash On Hutchinson Parkway That Killed 5

SCARSDALE, NY — Westchester County officials offered more details about a crash over the weekend that claimed the lives of five Connecticut children on the Hutchinson River Parkway in Scarsdale.

The crash was on the northbound Hutchinson River Parkway, just north of the Mamaroneck Road exit in Scarsdale, Westchester County Executive George Latimer said at a news conference Monday. The deadly crash happened around 12:20 a.m. Sunday.

Latimer said he drove through that location just two hours before the accident.

“This was a horrific accident,” he said. “It was a horrific accident site.”

The Nissan Rogue was traveling at normal highway speeds when it veered off the road, struck a boulder and then crashed into a tree, causing the SUV to burst into flames, Latimer said.

The driver, identified as 16-year-old Malik Smith, did not have a New York driver’s license or learners permit.

The area where the accident happened on the parkway curves to the left and goes downhill, Latimer said. It appeared Smith did not negotiate the curve.

There were no tire marks on the roadway and no evidence of braking, he said. Speed wasn't believed to have contributed to the wreck.

Investigators believe Smith was distracted or fell asleep, Latimer said.

Authorities are still trying to determine whether seat belts were used and where the young people were traveling to or from. The family had just relocated to Derby, Connecticut, from New York City.

Police discerned that Smith and the front passenger — 17-year-old Anthony Billips Jr. — died of blunt force trauma.

At this point in the investigation, “we are less concerned about who to blame,” Latimer said, than how to prevent such accidents.

The 9-year-old boy who survived the crash — Abraham Billips — got out of the back of the SUV through a shattered rear window. He was taken to Westchester Medical Center with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

A relative rented the SUV, Latimer said. It wasn't immediately clear how Smith gained access to it.

The other children who died in the crash were identified as 12-year-old Zahnyiah Cross, 11-year-old Shawnell Cross and 8-year-old Andrew Billips.

"They wasn't cousins, they were more brothers. Brothers and sisters, that's how close they are," Malik Smith, the driver's father, told CBS New York.

The father said his son lived in East New York, Brooklyn, and often spent weekends at the mall with his cousins who live in Connecticut.

"That's his thing. He goes to the mall. He goes to get his ice cream with his cousin. They go to the movies. They walk around the mall. They do what teenagers and kids do, you know. So that's, it's just, I didn't know he was driving by himself," Smith said.

The families of the children asked for help with funeral expenses.

A GoFundMe page has been organized by Da’Shawna Cross of Derby, Connecticut, and has raised more than $37,000 in less than a day.

Cross wrote that she created the fundraiser “to help bury our children we lost, we as parents lost 5 of our children in a very tragic accident and need help deeply with giving them a great home going service.”

She added that “we just want to put our babies to rest.”

Derby Board of Education Chairman Jim Gildea, who spoke to Derby Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Conway, told the Valley Independent Sentinel that the family had recently moved to west Derby from New York and had not yet registered in the local school system.

“This is an absolute tragedy,” Gildea told the outlet. “We are initiating our grief crisis plans. They could have, of course, known people in the neighborhood. They were residents of our community, so the superintendent has been in touch with the administrative team to put those plans in place.”

Editor's Note: Patch is a GoFundMe promotional partner.