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Jul 2, 2007 10:55 am US/Eastern
Tappan Zee Re-Opens After Deadly Crash
Bridge Closed For 9 Hours
by Magee Hickey
SOUTH NYACK, N.Y. (CBS/AP) ―
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The fiery crash shut the the Tappan Zee Bridge for nine hours. One driver was killed in the crash.
CBS
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A burned out hulk was all that remained of a tractor-trailer that ignited after a crash on the Tappan Zee.
CBS
The Tappan Zee Bridge is open again after a fiery tractor-trailer crash claimed the life of a driver on the Rockland County side and shut down the span for hours.
New York State Thruway Authority senior dispatcher David Jones says the bridge re-opened at 4:27 a.m. Monday.
Jones says the trailer burst into flames when it collided with two passenger vehicles at around 7:20 p.m. Sunday, and the driver of the larger vehicle was killed. The accident caused the bridge to be shut down for about nine hours.
"We heard three loud booms," one motorist told CBS 2 News.
"[There was a] ton of smoke, I mean it was like a bomb went off."
The flames were going up past the lights on the bridge. That's how bad it was. And you could just hear it go, boom, boom," another motorist said.
Angela Ruolo, who saw the blaze from nearby South Nyack, says she saw black smoke and a huge ball of fire.
Jones says an engineer checked the bridge's structural integrity before clean up began this morning. The tractor-trailer has been removed.
Authorities are investigating the circumstances of the crash. He says two or three people suffered minor injuries at the scene.
The span connects Nyack, in Rockland County, and Tarrytown, in Westchester County.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
