Trucker involved in fatal Cross Bronx Expressway crash hit with charges
Police have arrested a driver involved in a fiery chain-reaction Cross Bronx Expressway crash that killed a special education teacher, cops said Tuesday.
Abdullah Bruce, 43, was cuffed and charged with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and driving without a license after the Nov. 29 crash, according to police.
Bruce, of Petersburg, Va., was driving a tractor-trailer carrying mail in a westbound lane near the University Ave. overpass in the Bronx when Shelly Vilsaint, 49, rear-ended him around 12:24 a.m., cops said.
Moments later, a 53-year-old driver of another tractor-trailer slammed into the back of Vilsaint’s Range Rover, sending the woman and her car under Bruce’s truck, police said.
The SUV overturned in the process and triggered an explosion that engulfed all three vehicles and killed Vilsaint, cops said.
Bruce and the other truck driver were not injured and remained at the scene.
The woman was a mother of four who not only worked as a special education teacher, but also volunteered her time and organized fundraisers for those in need, the Daily News reported at the time of the crash.
She lived in Bayonne.
