Goshen, NY – Route 17 Reopened After Multi-Car Crash Seriously Injures Orthodox Woodmere Family

Goshen, NY – A Woodmere couple are in serious condition at Westchester County Medical Center this morning after they were involved in a car collision last night on Route 17 that completely closed the much-traveled interstate on one of the busiest nights of the year.

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 at approximately 11:45 PM last night.

The parents were identified by an email sent out by Yeshiva Neveh Zion as Misha and Estee Rapaport. Rabbi Avraham Falk, menahel of the yeshiva, confirmed that Misha Rappaport was a talmid of the yeshiva over a dozen years ago. State Trooper Steven Nevel, public information officer at the Troop F headquarters of the New York State Police in Middletown, said that Misha Rapaport sustained two broken legs and that Estee Rapaport had compound fractures to both legs as well as internal injuries. Neither sustained head injuries in the collision.

Nevel said that the Rapaports’ minivan was stopped at the side of the highway and that both Rapaport and his wife were standing outside the vehicle, by the driver’s side of the vehicle, for unknown reasons when their vehicle was sideswiped by a 2013 Honda traveling eastbound on Route 17. Mrs. Rapaport was thrown 100 feet by the impact of the collision.

The Honda veered into the center lane as a result of the collision, where the driver stopped and then reversed his vehicle to render assistance to the injured couple, when it was struck by a Mobile Life ambulance traveling eastbound on the center lane on the highway.

The Rapaports were airlifted to Westchester County Medical Center, where according to Nevel, they remain in serious condition. The driver of the Honda was taken to Orange Regional Medical Center with minor injuries.

Both the driver of the ambulance and the patient who was being transported in the ambulance at the time of the crash sustained minor injuries. Nevel said that the Rapaport children, who were in the minivan at the time of the crash, were not injured.

“There was a massive response immediately from law enforcement with numerous agencies, including the Goshen Police Department, Goshen ambulance, mobile medics and Hatzolah,” New York state law enforcement Chaplain Abe Friedman, who was on scene, told VIN News.

All traffic was stopped on Route 17 so that Medevac helicopters could land on the highway.

Route 17 remained closed until 5 AM as state troopers investigated the accident scene. A state police crash scene team is continuing to investigate the accident site.

“We don’t know why they were off the road, if they were having mechanical difficulties and are still looking into what caused the Honda to hit the vehicle,” said Nevel.

The public is asked to daven for Moshe ben Miriam Rus and Esther Mindel bas Gittel Miryam.