WAWAYANDA – Three people were killed in a crash between a tractor-trailer and a car on Interstate 84 in the Wawayanda area before sun-up on Wednesday.
All occupants of the car, three people and two dogs, died
Killed in the crash were the occupants of the car, identified as the driver, Jesenia Valentin, 29, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and her daughter, Angelina Rodriguez, 9, who was sitting in the rear. The front seat passenger, another woman, has yet to be identified.
State Police said the incident occurred about 3:40 a.m., on I-84 westbound, about three miles west of Exit 3.
Captain Brendan Casey said the 2006 VW Passat ran out of gas in the right
hand lane. The driver put on her four-way flashers and called 911. About
three minutes into the conversation, the 911 operator heard a crash and
a dog yelp and the phone went dead, Casey said.
Valentin was wearing her seatbelt. Her daughter and the other passenger were not, he said.
The driver of the truck, from Sugar Loaf, Pennsylvania, was hauling a half-loaded Auto Zone truck back to his depot at the time.
Ruggiero told police he saw the car with its emergency lights on and thought it was moving. Moments before impact, he realized it was standing still.
Casey said both the 911 operator and the truck driver, who was not injured, were extremely upset about the incident.
I-84 west was shut down for eight hours between exits 3 and 2.
Casey said this tragedy illustrates how dangerous it is to leave your disabled vehicle in the driving lanes of any road. Motorists should make every effort to move their vehicle off the road and if they cannot, he said they should step over the guard rail and as far away from the vehicle as possible.
This was the second time in two weeks that a child was killed in a crash on I-84. The other accident, also involving a nine-year-old girl, apparently unrestrained, happened just across the Delaware River in Pike County PA.
