Cross Bronx Fiery Crash Victim Identified

A fiery crash on the Cross Bronx Expressway took the life of a New Jersey woman. -Photo courtesy of Citizens App

By Dan Gesslein 

Bronx Voice 

November 29, 2022

BRONX - Police have identified the driver who died in the fiery crash on the Cross Bronx Expressway which was dramatically captured by Citizens App. After rear ending a tractor trailer, the driver waited in her SUV. Then  a second big rig slammed into her car, causing the fatal fireball, while she waited in her car following what could have been a minor accident.

Police have identified the driver who perished in the accident as 49-year-old Shelly Vilsaint of Bayonne, New Jersey. 

At around midnight today, police responded to a report of an accident on the westbound side of the Cross Bronx Expressway at University Avenue. Officers arrived to find three vehicles, two tractor trailers and a Land Rover SUV, engulfed in flames in the center lane of the expressway. 

Vilsaint, who drove the 2019 Land Rover, was pronounced dead at the scene. 

-Photo courtesy of Citizens App

An investigation by the NYPD Highway District's Collision Investigation Squad, determined that the Land Rover slammed into the back of a 2013 tractor trailer. Both Vilsaint and the driver of the tractor trailer stayed in the center lane following the accident. 

Then another tractor trailer slammed into the back of the SUV causing the Land Rover the be pushed into the back of the first tractor trailer and overturn the SUV in the process. The impact caused a fire that soon engulfed all three vehicles. 

The two tractor trailer drivers were not injured and remained at the scene. No arrests have been made and the case is still being investigated.