James O’Rourke

Schechel has been charged with criminally negligent homicide.

Hannah%2C Ayeh-Brachie%2C 56%2C a Bronx beauty salon owner from Hillcrest%2C was killed in the crash. Her husband was injured.

State police initially believed Schechel may have had an anxiety attack%2C Schechel has said he has no history of such attacks.

ORANGETOWN – Michael Schechel, the wrong-way driver in the July crash on the Tappan Zee Bridge in which a Hillcrest woman was killed, was charged Thursday with criminally negligent homicide, officials said.

Schechel, arrested by New York state troopers, was arraigned in Orangetown Town Court and released without bail, court clerk Maureen McGrath said.

His arrest comes after several months of investigation into the July 23 crash that claimed the life of Hannah Ayeh-Brachie, 56. Her husband, who was driving the car, was injured.

Schechel was driving a Ford Explorer south in the northbound lanes of the bridge when his car collided head-on into Ayeh-Brachie's Nissan. Three other cars also were involved in the crash.

State police initially believed Schechel may have had an anxiety attack leading up to the crash, causing him to enter the wrong lanes of the New York State Thruway.

A month after the accident, Schechel, who was hospitalized with a head injury for about a week, admitted to taking antidepressants and blood pressure medication, but said he had no history of anxiety attacks. The 69-year-old claimed to have entered the Thruway after getting confused by road signs and said he could recall little about the incident.

"I just kept driving," he told The Journal News in August. "I didn't see anything. All I saw was the end result ... . It all happened so fast. ... I remember the collision. Boom. And that's all I remember."

Schechel could not be reached Thursday. His attorney did not return a message left seeking comment and a woman at his home said he was unavailable.

Speaking for Ayeh-Brachie's family, Clem Yeboah, an in-law, said he had not been told about Schechel's arrest Thursday and that the family was dismayed it has taken so long for action in the case.

"We believe that justice delayed is justice denied," he said. "This incident happened in July and here we are at the end of March and this is what is happening. It's ridiculous, but we'll take it."

Yeboah said the family has had a difficult time dealing with the loss of its matriarch, who had owned a beauty salon in the Bronx.

"One of her children was out of the country pursuing a career and has had to put that career on hold to help her family put things back together," Yeboah said. "She's had to stop everything she was doing until this thing is resolved. She can't continue with her life until her family can put closure to all of this."

Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said any appearance of a delay in Schechel's arrest is likely the result of waiting on all of the evidence — including chemical blood testing and an accident investigation — to be available to state police investigators.

"We've been in constant discussion with state police and we agreed with the decision to make the arrest today," Zugibe said, later adding, "It took a while, but state police did a very thorough investigation and I applaud them for that."

The evidence that led to Schechel's arrest was not released Thursday. A state police spokeswoman could not provide any specific details of the investigation.

In the aftermath of the crash, the Thruway Authority installed two electronic signs along the ramp to alert drivers they were going the wrong way.

Three LED messages flash in sequence — Stop; Wrong Way; Pull Over — once a vehicle is detected by radar. They are intended to stop a driver before reaching the Thruway.

Interchange 10 is the second location on the 570-mile highway to receive the wrong-way signs, and Thruway officials said more are planned across the state.

McGrath said Schechel is due to answer to the felony charge in South Nyack Village Court at 5:30 p.m. April 7.

Staff writers Steve Lieberman, Khurram Saeed and Shawn Cohen contributed to this report.

Twitter: @JORourkeT800