Tractor-trailer driver killed while avoiding crash in Roslyn Heights

ROSLYN HEIGHTS (WABC) -- A tractor trailer driver was killed while trying to avoid slamming into an overpass on the Northern State Parkway Sunday.

Eastbound lanes of the parkway were closed for hours Sunday night in Roslyn Heights between exits 28 and 31 while police cleared the scene.

Police say the operator of the tractor trailer, 53-year-old Javier Tapia, of McAllen, Texas, mistakenly entered the Northern State Parkway from the Long Island Expressway, and as he approached the bridge at I.U Willets Road, he attempted to stop to avoid striking the bridge.

Tapia was killed when the metal beams that he was hauling penetrated the tractor cab upon his sudden stop.

The vehicle did not strike the bridge.

Commercial trucks are banned from parkways because of the low overpasses.

Tapia was operating a 2007 Freightliner flatbed tractor trailer for AAA Freight Incorporated, located in Palos Hills, Illinois He was traveling to Oyster Bay.