Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and his wife escaped injury in a three-car accident on a New York City highway that killed a 30-year-old woman and injured a mail truck driver yesterday afternoon.

The accident occurred on the Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx. Brokaw, 69, and his wife, Meredith, said in a statement they were "greatly saddened by this loss of life."

Police say they are investigating the accident.

Brokaw retired as NBC anchor in 2004 and was succeeded by Brian Williams. He has made frequent appearances on the network, filling in as anchor of the network's "Meet the Press" for months after Tim Russert's death in 2008.

SITE REVEALS COLBERT A CLOSET CANUCK

Stephen Colbert has been called what his mock pundit character would deem a traitorous insult: Canadian.

The host of "The Colbert Report" is — gasp! — a Canuck, or at least has a Canadian heritage, says the genealogy Web site Ancestry.com. Colbert's great-great-grandfather and his great-great-grandmother immigrated from Ireland to Canada, according to the site.

On his Comedy Central show, Colbert's "U-S-A!"-chanting character has disparaged the Great White North often.

On the show, he has joined complaints that Vancouver Olympic officials have been limiting international athletes' access to facilities for the 2010 Winter Games.

He's also called Canadians "syrup-suckers" and has a petition on his show's Web site urging the Vancouver Organizing Committee not to be "an ice-hole."

PRISON WOULD BE DEATH, ASTOR'S SON SAYS

Brooke Astor's 85-year-old son says he's too sick and doesn't deserve to go to prison for the jury decision that he plundered his philanthropist mother's fortune.

Anthony Marshall's lawyers asked a court yesterday to dismiss that part of his conviction — first-degree grand larceny — that requires at least a year behind bars. They enclosed letters praising Marshall from celebrity friends and from doctors detailing his ailments.

Marshall's lawyers say any prison time could effectively be a death sentence. Marshall was convicted in October. He faces up to 25 years in prison at sentencing on Dec. 21. Prosecutors had no immediate response.

POE'S FIRST BOOK SELLS FOR RECORD $662,500

A rare copy of Edgar Allan Poe's first book has sold for $662,500, smashing the previous record price for American literature.

The copy of "Tamerlane and Other Poems" had been estimated to sell yesterday for between $500,000 and $700,000 at Christie's auction house in New York City.

The previous record is believed to be $250,000 for a copy of the same book sold nearly two decades ago.

The 40-page collection of poems was published in 1827. Poe wrote the book shortly after moving to Boston to launch his literary career.

No more than 40 or 50 copies of "Tamerlane" were printed, and only 12 remain.