Wrong turn leads to death for Vietnam veteran

Updated on Oct. 2

A Vietnam War veteran was killed in a tragic wrong-way crash on the Major Deegan Expressway last week.

Police said that on Sept. 23 at around 7 a.m., 63-year-old Douglas “Dovid” Kaplan of Yonkers was involved in a collision while attempting to get onto the Major Deegan Expressway. 

According to police, Mr. Kaplan was driving his gray Toyota Camry the wrong way up the exit ramp at East 233rd Street and Jerome Avenue when his car sideswiped another vehicle and then struck a Department of Transportation truck. 

Mr. Kaplan was pronounced dead at the scene, according to authorities. No other injuries or deaths were reported in the accident. Police have not made any arrests in the case. The NYPD Collision Investigating Squad is investigating the accident. 

At the time of his death, Mr. Kaplan, a husband and father of two, was reportedly on his way to a treatment session for post-traumatic stress disorder at the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center at 130 West Kingsbridge Road, where he was once employed. 

In an interview with News 12 Westchester on Sept. 24, a teary-eyed Malkah Lesman-Kaplan, Mr. Kaplan’s wife, a psychiatric social worker who treated veterans in Yonkers and White Plains said, “Going to the V.A. down 233rd onto the Deegan is something he knew. I have no idea what happened.”

A member of the Lincoln Park Jewish Center in Yonkers, Mr. Kaplan was described as funny, jovial and committed to a life of service. According to an article published earlier this spring in Yonkers Rising, he was a member of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America and a life member of the Disabled American Veterans.

“I know he was very big with the Hasidic community,” said Gina Saglimbeni, who met Mr. Kaplan and his wife about seven years ago. “I’m very, very upset and deeply saddened. There were so many comments [on Facebook] by people who worked with him, and I was like, ‘Wow, that was Doug.’ He was just very, very nice. There was not a mean bone in his body.”