By Freeman staff

COXSACKIE, N.Y. — An accident on the Thruway in Greene County in which an SUV became airborne claimed the life of a New York City woman and injured her four passengers, one critically, state police said on Wednesday.

Police said Russhelle T. Thompson, 34, was northbound on the highway near mile marker 122.4 in Coxsackie about 11 p.m. Tuesday when the rear passenger-side tire of the 1998 Mercury Montaineer she was driving blew out. The blowout caused the SUV to spin into the highway’s median, strike the guard rail, become airborne, cross the southbound lanes and land on its roof on an embankment along the west shoulder, police said.

Thompson died in the crash, police said. Theodora Beneby, 12, of Albany, who was thrown from the vehicle, was in critical but stable condition midday Wednesday in the Intensive Care Unit at Albany Medical Center, said state police Sgt. Don Baker. A police press release said the girl suffered internal injuries.

The other three passengers — identified by Baker as Messiah Jones, 12, of New York City; Torrick Dixon, 18, of the Bronx; and Aniah Marbly, 21, of Albany — were taken to Albany Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries ranging from bruises to a slight neck fracture, police said.

Baker did not know how, of if, any the people in the vehicle were related to one another. He also was unsure of the vehicle’s point of origin or destination.

The accident closed the Thruway in both directions between Exits 21 (Catskill) and 21B (Coxsackie-Ravena)  for nearly three hours, police said. They said one lane reopened in each direction at 1:52 a.m., and the remaining lanes reopened at 2:35 a.m.

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