Two separate crashes on NY Route 17 killed two people, and sent three others to local hospitals within minutes of each other. The first call came at 5:09PM yesterday. State police said a GMC Sierra pickup crashed into a Volvo station wagon – near Exit 118 in the westbound lanes – and then tumbled down an embankment. NY State police said the driver, an 82-year-old Clifton, N.J., man, died in the truck.

As the specialists photographed, measured and documented the scene, there was a second crash less than a mile away involving a car and a tractor-trailer leaving the driver of the car dead.

Rabbi Bernard Freilich, special assistant to the Superintendent of the NY State Police informed Yeshivaworld that the Chevra Kaddisha were not needed in either of these tragic accidents.

(Sources: NY State Police / Record / MidhudsonNews)