Five-year-old Girl Killed in a Head-on Collision in Sullivan County

Monticello, NY- The Monroecopost.com* reports that a five-year-old girlwas killed in a head-on collision in Sullivan County on Monday, September 3, 2018. The collision took place in Monticello just before 3 p.m. on Route 17. Police who responded to the crash site performed CRP on the victim, Charkeilys Viera. The child was then taken to the Catskill Regional Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

The victim’s 14-year-old sister, CharleilysViera and the father who was driving the vehicle, Carmelo Viera, 50, were both airlifted to the Westchester Medical Center where they were reportedly in critical condition.

The family was traveling in a pickup truck at the time of the crash. The truck veered over the median and into oncoming traffic. The family hit another pickup truck head-on. Charkeilys was not in a child seat when the accident took place, and no one in the truck appeared to have been wearing their seatbelt.

The family in the other pickup truck included a couple and two teenage girls. All four sustained injuries and were treated at local hospitals.

Sheriff Michael Schiff reported that the crash occurred at “one of the few spots on Route 17 that does not have a center median barrier.”

Head-on collisions are extremely deadly types of accidents. The speed of the vehicles traveling towards one another multiples the force of the collision. Studies have indicated that the chances of surviving a head-on collision drop dramatically once the vehicles exceed 43 miles per hour. One way to decrease the chances of being involved in a deadly hit-and-run crash is to avoid driving on roads with speed limits over 40 miles per hour unless they have a barrier separating opposing lanes of traffic.**

*http://www.monroecopost.com/news/20180905/5-year-old-rochester-girl-killed-in-labor-day-crash
**https://www.thecarcrashdetective.com/how-to-survive-a-head-on-collision-slow-down-to-below-43mph/