The heartbroken grandmother of the 9-year-old boy who was allegedly killed by his drugged-out mom in a wrong-way crash on a Long Island parkway said her daughter had been struggling with medical issues before the tragedy — but that the youngster was “everything to her.”
Grandmother Diane Bedrick described a close relationship between her grandson, Elias D. Henrys, and her daughter, Kerri Bedrick, who faces a slew of felonies, including aggravated driving while impaired, after the deadly four-vehicle crash Thursday along the South State Parkway.
“He was such a sweet boy and had a long life ahead of him,” Bedrick told Newsday. “She adored him and he was everything to her.”
The grieving grandmother said that her 32-year-old daughter had been suffering from medical issues and was on prescription medication.
“They’re both loved and we’re trying to get through this,” she told the paper.
Henrys was found buckled in the back seat of Bedrick’s Mitsubishi SUV, which hit another vehicle head-on with such force its engine flew out and into the woods off the road, authorities said.
Medics and New York State troopers rushed Henrys to a hospital, but he died from his injuries, cops said.
Diane Bedrick, when reached by The Post Friday morning, declined to comment further.
The crash unfolded about 2:30 a.m. as Kerri Bedrick drove her SUV the wrong way along the eastbound Southern State Parkway near the Islip exit while trying to flee an attempted traffic stop by a Suffolk County deputy sheriff, according to state police and ABC7.
The deputy stopped the wrong-way chase by switching into the westbound lanes, but Bedrick continued, crashing into oncoming traffic, the report states.
Bedrick suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the crash, as did the drivers of three other vehicles involved in the chain-reaction wreck, state police said.
“To give you an idea of the severity of the impact, the engine of the wrong-way driving vehicle was thrown from that vehicle into the woods some distance from the collision point itself,” said Stephen Udice, state police Troop L commander.
.Video published by the outlet showed Bedrick groggily being escorted by police from a hospital.
Kerri Bedrick was scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.