BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A tractor-trailer truck
overturned on the Brooklyn-
Queens Expressway April 26,
spilling gallons of fuel onto
the highway.
Video shot by motorist
Chris Wiackley who was driving
a fuel oil tanker on the
opposite side of the roadway
toward Queens near Flushing
Avenue, when he saw the
heavy-duty vehicle careen toward
the divider as dust and
debris came fl ying.
“He’s skidding across the
lanes and then — boom — he
hits the divider, the debris is
just showering into my lane of
traffi c,” Wiackley told Brooklyn
Paper. “It was one of those
days where you’re like, ‘Is today
your last day, is today
checkout day?’”
The seasoned truck motorist
said the other truck operator
must have been going well
above the 45 miles-per-hour
speed limit, causing him to
lose his balance as he came
around the tight bend between
Flushing and Park avenues.
“That’s a hard right turn.
He must’ve been doing at least
70 miles per hour,” said Wiackley,
COURIER L 10 IFE, APR. 30-MAY 6, 2021
who drives on the busy
highway every day delivering
fuel for the fi rm S.J. Fuel Co.
on Third Avenue in Gowanus.
“He’s making that hard turn
at a high rate of speed and he
can’t hold that turn. You see
the truck start to lean to the
left, the back wheels start to
come up off the ground.”
A camera fi lming the inside
of Wiackley’s truck shows him
instinctively duck when he sees
the crash, as the oncoming vehicle
skids towards him but he
is saved by the median divider.
“The divider basically
saved my butt,” he said.
Wiackley feared the worst
for the other driver and immediately
dialed 911 to call emergency
services to the scene.
“‘This guy’s dead,’ fi rst
thing in my mind,” he said.
“I’ve seen accidents, people
rear-ending each other, but
not people fl ipping over.”
Luckily, neither the driver
nor anybody else was seriously
injured in the crash,
the authorities said Monday,
however some 100 gallons of
diesel fuel spilled onto the
road, which Fire Department
hazmat units had to contain
and clean up.
The driver, 39-year-old
Yoasmir Geronimo of New
Jersey, told police that the
wind and the curve in the road
caused the load to shift and
the truck to roll on its side. He
sustained only minor injuries
to his face.
But cops discovered that
Geronimo had expired plates
from the Garden State and that
his New York State driver’s license
had been suspended,
so they arrested him on aggravated
unlicensed operator
charges, according to Department
spokeswoman Detective
Sophia Mason.
The moment where video shows the crash. Chris Wiackley
The scene of the crash. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Truck fl ips on BQE
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