The accident happened at around 11:40PM, Sunday night. There were three vehicles involved – one of them an ambulance (Mobile Life)
Catskills Hatzolah, Kiryas Joel Hatzolah, and Goshen Vol. Ambulance were all operating at the scene.
Three choppers were called to airlift three victims with serious injuries. The Medevac’s landed on the highway forcing the closure of both directions of traffic.
One of the vehicles involved in the crash, was a minivan occupied by Misha and Estee Rapaport of Woodmere and their four children.
The Children were not injured.
The family, two parents and four children, had been headed eastbound in a black minivan on Route 17 East near exit 124 and were parked on the right shoulder of the highway when the crash took place.
The Rapaports’ minivan was stopped at the side of the highway and both Rapaport and his wife were standing outside the vehicle for unknown reasons when their vehicle was sideswiped by a 2013 Honda traveling eastbound on Route 17.
The parents are reportedly in critical condition and were airlifted to Westchester Trauma Center.
It appears the mother was ejected from the vehicle. The four children were taken to Orange Regional Medical center for observation.
