An off-duty NYPD cop was killed driving the wrong way on the New York State Thruway on Tuesday morning, slamming head-on into another car and killing that driver, too, police said.
Officer Richard Christopher, 32, was driving his Dodge Dakota pickup truck southbound in the northbound lane of the highway just before 7 a.m. when he collided with a Honda CRV driven by James DeVito, 59, near Exit 15 in Suffern, officials said.
State police are still trying to determine why Christopher, a NYPD cop in the 43rd precinct in the Bronx, was driving the wrong way.
Officers were dispatched to the scene after a witness saw Christopher’s blue pickup barreling the wrong way and called police, cops said.
But by the time they arrived on scene, debris from the two vehicles lay scattered all over I -87, and both drivers were dead.
“[Both drivers] were killed instantly upon impact,” said a rescue worker at the scene. “When my unit arrived, they were DOA. They were still inside the car.”
“It was a horrific scene,” he continued.
No other vehicles were involved in the wreck. Traffic was backed up for hours during Tuesday’s rush-hour commute.