Bronx Zoo crash: highway lacked adequate guardrails, American Automobile Association says

NEW YORK – The American Automobile Association says the site of yesterday’s fatal car accident in the Bronx has several important safety hazards, according to The Associated Press.

Seven members of a family died yesterday when the SUV they were traveling in plunged 60 feet from the Bronx River Parkway into a private area of the Bronx Zoo. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr has called for action on the part of city agencies.

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Another accident at the same location left five people dead six years ago, according to NY1, a local cable television news broadcaster.

A spokesman for the AAA said the location had inadequate guard rails and that the stretch of highway also had narrow lanes, steep hills, sharp turns and no lane for broken-down cars to stop, according to the AP.

The spokesman, Robert Sinclair, was cited as saying the stretch of highway opened in 1925 and was not engineered like modern roads.

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The Associated Press reported earlier today that the driver, Maria Gonzalez, was believed to have been speeding at the time of the accident, traveling at 68 miles per hour in a 50 mile-per-hour zone.