45-year-old man dead in Van Wyck crash that snarled traffic for hours

QUEENS, N.Y. (WABC) -- One man was killed when his speeding car slammed into the rear of a tractor-trailer in a crash that snarled the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens for hours Wednesday morning.

Police say 45-year-old Tarik Williamson was driving southbound at a high rate of speed when his Acura hit the truck near 73rd Street just before 5 a.m.

Williamson, of Waterbury, Connecticut, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The 52-year-old driver of the tractor trailer, who had just dropped off construction equipment for an ongoing project on the Van Wyck, was not injured.

The expressway was closed for hours but reopened around 8:30 a.m.