NY - Two corrections officers killed in car crash

Two off-duty correction officers died and an off-duty cop was injured when two SUVs collided in Brooklyn early yesterday, authorities said.

Tiffany Underwood, 31, and Africaque Smith, 43 — who worked on Rikers Island — were heading north on Kings Highway in a Nissan Murano at around 4:40 a.m. when they swerved into the southbound lanes, law-enforcement sources said.

Sheldon White, a 23-year-old off-duty cop in a Ford Explorer, was headed south and slammed into the passenger-side door of the out-of-control Nissan between Snyder and Church avenues in East Flatbush, source said.

 

White was headed home from his shift in Williamsburg in the 90th Precinct.

He was released after being treated at Kings County Hospital for his injuries.

The correction officers were pronounced dead at Brookdale Hospital. It was not clear which of the women had been driving.

Law-enforcement sources said that a can of Four Loko — a caffeinated alcoholic drink banned in several states but legal in New York — was found in their SUV.

The results of toxicology tests could take several days.

Police sources and witnesses told The Post that the correction officers’ SUV might have been speeding before the accident.

Trevor Brown, 40, was filling up his tank at a gas station “when I heard the noise of the crash and ran over,” he said.

“I thought ‘Oh, my God!’ I knew as soon as I saw the car, the two people inside were dead. It was crazy.”

Brown said the cop got out of his SUV and appeared shaken but OK.

“He went back and sat in his car because he looked like he was in shock,” he added.

Neighbor Kathy Chase, 54, said, “I was in bed when I heard a loud bang.’’

She added that accidents are common on that stretch of road.

About 20 correction officers and relatives hugged each other and sobbed after rushing to Brookdale.

Smith’s mother-in-law, Thelma Futrell, described her as a “hardworking woman.”

“She was a loving mother, wife and grandmother,” Futrell said.

 

 

NY POST