Dive teams have called off efforts to recover the body of a man who drowned when the tugboat he was in collided with a construction barge in the Hudson River and sank, Westchester County's top cop says.
The body of Harry Hernandez, of Staten Island, is in a heavily entangled area in the front of the sunken tugboat and will not be able to be removed until specialized equipment is brought up from Virginia to raise the 90-foot vessel, Westchester County Police Commissioner George Longworth said.
Hernandez, of Staten Island, was one of three men who died after the boat hit a barge near where workers are building the new Tappan Zee Bridge. The bodies of Timothy Conklin, of Westbury, New Jersey; and Paul Amon, of Bayville, New Jersey, were already recovered.
Medical examiners determined that Conklin and Amon both drowned.
Longworth said that they had hoped to get Hernandez out for his family, but that the damage was too severe for divers to reach the man's body. The earliest they say they can recover the body will be March 22.
Authorities said three tugboats were pushing a barge from Albany to Jersey City, New Jersey, when one of the three -- situated on the right side as it headed south -- hit a stationary barge that was part of the Tappan Zee Bridge construction project. A tugboat on the left side of the barge that was being pushed, as well as one that was pushing the barge from the rear, were not involved in the accident.
Officials said investigators still were conducting interviews and trying to piece together exactly what happened.
