Bethpage crash kills mother and daughter, 11

A woman and her 11-year-old daughter died Wednesday in a multivehicle accident in Bethpage involving a tractor-trailer and at least four cars, Nassau police said.

The crash happened at the intersection of Central Avenue and Hicksville Road in Bethpage at 5:54 p.m., police said. Information concerning other possible injuries, and accident details, were not immediately available from police. The 44-year-old mother, her daughter and the tractor-trailer driver had yet to be identified.

Eileen Casper, who lives near the intersection, on McCord Place, said she heard the crash. "At the time I was sitting in my kitchen, and the house actually vibrated from the impact. I actually thought something had hit the house," Casper said. But the accident was actually about 100 feet away.

When Casper went to her front window, she could see people from stopped cars running down the street toward the crash, she said.

Casper said that when she went out toward the crash, she could see that the most damage was to the car struck by the tractor-trailer. Inside the car, there was a woman and a young girl, Casper said.

"The impact was so bad that the mom was over toward the daughter on the passenger side," she said. "They used the Jaws of Life to get them out. I saw them place them on the stretchers."

Casper, who has lived there for 36 years, said it is a dangerous intersection. Vehicles are often going through the intersection as the light is changing from green to yellow, and even after it has changed to red, she said.

With Matthew Chayes