The wife of a New York Yankees executive was killed when a tree fell on her car in Westchester County on Wednesday.
Catherine Tusiani, 50, was driving a 2021 Toyota north on Route 128 at School St. in Armonk, New York, during Wednesday’s storm when a tree fell on her car around 5:30 p.m., authorities said.
Strong gusts blew a tree into her car less than a mile from her house, killing her. Police claimed the victim was the only one in the car at the time. Police did not name the driver, but she was eventually recognized as Tusiani, the wife of the Yankees’ senior vice president of partnerships, Michael J. Tusiani.
The baseball team issued a statement on Thursday expressing their “pain and grief” with Mr Tusiani, the couple’s two children Alexa and Julia, and their entire family in the aftermath of the tragedy.
“Words cannot express the devastating impact that has been felt within the Yankees family following the sudden and tragic loss of Cathy Tusiani,” the statement read.
They added that over the two-plus decades that Mr Tusiani has dedicated to the Yankee’s organisation, his wife has been “beloved by our front office staffers”.
According to the team, the staff saw “her kindness, intelligence, sense of humor, and great love for her husband”. “The Yankees stand with them to offer our complete support and unconditional love as we navigate this unimaginable loss,” the statement went on to state.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer expressed his condolences to the Tusiani family and stated that additional precautions must be done to address incidents that occur during inclement weather. “The circumstances surrounding Catherine’s tragic accident serve as an unfortunate reminder of the unpredictable nature of life, particularly in the face of adverse weather conditions,” he said in a statement to The New York Post.
“In the wake of this tragedy, we will learn what we can to identify any factors that contributed to the accident and explore measures that we could take to prevent similar occurrences in the future.” New York was hammered this week by a major storm that delivered continuous rain, low temperatures, and violent winds of up to 50 mph.
The strongest downpours swept through New York on Wednesday before moving on to the Boston area overnight. The Town of North Castle Police and the Westchester County Police Department are both investigating the event.