Woman Survives Car Crash, Dies Trying To Retrieve Her Things

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A young mom whose car flipped over on a Long Island highway Sunday miraculously emerged from the wreckage relatively unscathed — only to be struck and killed after she ran back to retrieve some belongings. Brittany Leith, 25, of North Ba­by­lon had climbed out from under her vehicle after it struck the center median and flipped as she was traveling west on the Southern State Parkway near Exit 36 at about 3:54 a.m., state police said.

The single mom managed to walk to the right shoulder of the roadway with the help of other motorists who stopped to aid her. But after getting to safety, she told the good Samaritans she needed to run back across the busy highway to retrieve her property from inside her car, according to police. They begged her not to go, to no avail.

As Leith was making her way to her upended car in the left lane, a passing vehicle fatally struck her. A state police car arrived a short time later — and was struck from behind by another passing vehicle. A police officer who was inside the rammed cruiser was taken to Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Islip, but officials did not release any additional information on the injured cop’s condition.

Anna Leith, Brittany’s distraught grandmother, said she now has to face the difficult task of telling the woman’s young daughter, Zoey, that her mom isn’t coming home. “She has a 3-year-old daughter . . . who doesn’t have a mother anymore,” said Anna Leith, 75. “She was the best mother in the world. She loved Zoey more than anything,” she added.

New York Post.