Police: 9-year-old boy killed in wrong-way crash on Southern State; mother charged

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Police say a 9-year-old boy has died and his mother is facing charges for driving under the influence following a wrong-way crash on the eastbound Southern State Parkway. According to police, the crash involved four cars near Exit 42 around 2:30 a.m. Police say the Centerport woman, identified as 32-year-old Kerri A. Bedrick, was on the parkway for five miles traveling in the wrong direction and may have been traveling the wrong-way on Sunrise Highway prior. Her son has been identified as Eli D. Henrys, also of Centerport. Bedrick was operating a black 2022 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross. When a sheriff spotted the woman, he tried to stop her. Police say the mother sped up. All other drivers were taken to the hospital with injuries considered not to be life threatening. The eastbound lanes of Southern State Parkway were closed earlier this morning but have since reopened. Bedrick has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated DWI, operating a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs, criminal possession of a stimulant and aggravated unlicensed operation. She will be held overnight and is due to be arraigned Friday in Suffolk County First District Court at 9 a.m. "