NBC News Veteran Tom Brokaw in Car Accident That Kills One
Car accident leaves one dead. Brokaw and wife survive uninjured.
Dec. 4, 2009 — -- Veteran news anchor Tom Brokaw was involved in a three-vehicle car crash today that left one person dead.
Brokaw and his wife, Meredith, both survived the wreck uninjured, but a female driver was thrown from her car and killed.
The 28-year-old victim's identity was not immediately known.
According to a statement released by Brokaw himself, the accident took place at around 1p.m. Friday on the Bruckner Expressway in New York City.
"The Brokaws were in the far left lane when they noticed a spool of cable bouncing along the far right lane," said Brokaw in the statement. "Just then, a green SUV in the right lane came up fast and tried to avoid the cable. The driver lost control of her vehicle and slid into the middle lane, forcing a mail truck into the Brokaw lane of traffic."
As the mail truck swerved into the lane where the Brokaws were driving, Brokaw "hit the brakes hard and skidded along the median."
"When the mail truck catapulted the median the Brokaw vehicle slid into it. Neither Tom nor Meredith were injured but tragically the driver of the SUV was thrown from her vehicle and killed," wrote Brokaw, who added that he and his wife are "greatly saddened by the loss of life."
The cause for the crash was not immediately clear.
According to news radio station 1010 WINS, the female victim worked in the area as a dispatcher for a car service.
She was thrown over the highway and down onto the train tracks below, according to the report, and was pronounced dead on the scene.
Brokaw, 69, was the anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News" from 1982 to 2004.
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