UPDATE: Charges Still Pending in 2013 Fatal Wrong-Way TZB Crash

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect a correction from the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office. The DA’s office sent out this message at 2:21 p.m.: The press release sent this morning on Michael Schechel was sent in error. The matter is still pending and has been adjourned. The date has not been determined.

Charges are still pending against a driver who caused a horrific wrong-way crash on the Tappan Zee Bridge.

The July 2013 crash claimed the life of Hannah Ayeh-Brachie, age 56, from Pomona. Michael Schechel, 69, faces charges of criminally negligent homicide.

Schechel, of Thiells, New York drove southbound in a northbound lane on the Tappan Zee Bridge in South Nyack, causing a multiple vehicle rollover accident that left one person dead and several others with serious injuries.

SEE:

• Update: Woman Dies in Five-Car Accident
• Fatal Bridge Accident: ‘I‘ve Never Seen Anything Like It

Schechel’s SUV slammed head on into a Nissan operated by Newman Ayeh-Brachie of Hillcrest, New York. A passenger, Hannah Ayeh-Brachie, 38 of Pomona, New York, died instantly.

On March 27, 2014, the defendant was charged by felony complaint with one count of Criminally Negligent Homicide, a class “E” Felony, in the Village of South Nyack Justice Court.

A thorough by the New York State Police handled the crash probe and accident reconstruction.

The statement Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe’s office sent out this morning said that “Despite the defendant’s ingestion of prescribed medication prior to the wrong-way accident, there was no evidence that Schechel deliberately operated his vehicle in a criminal manner.”

However, this afternoon’s statement notes that the matter is in fact still pending: it has been adjourned, with no date set for resumption.