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Crash

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The Huntington Community First Aid Squad responded to an emergency call on Saturday morning after a crash between a motorcycle and a car on East Jericho Turnpike in Huntington Station, near Longfellow Drive.

While on the way to the scene, the ambulance personnel learned that both the motorcycle and its motorcyclist were on fire, the ambulance company said.

When they arrived on scene, the responders found a conscious man complaining of pain to his right leg, and he had severe burns on about 10 percent of his body.

According to the ambulance company, the responders hooked up the man to an IV and gave him pain medication on the way to Nassau University Medical Center.

The road was closed in both directions while the scene was cleaned up.

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A car crashed into a guardrail on Route 347 and caught fire early Saturday morning, killing the elderly woman inside.

The Suffolk County Police Department said the woman, a 77-year-old Port Jefferson Station resident, had been driving west in a 2006 Chrysler 300 on the road, just past Old Town Road, at about 5 a.m. when she hit the guardrail.

The woman, whom police did not identify, was pronounced dead at the scene, but it was not immediately clear whether she died in the crash or the ensuing fire.

Police impounded her car for a safety check.

Detectives from the SCPD’s 6th Squad are investigating the East Setauket single-car crash. Anyone with information is asked to call them at 631-854-8652.

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Update, Sept. 11, 10:30 a.m.: Police reported that 34-year-old Corinne Maloney, a Centereach resident and passenger in the pickup truck during the Sept. 2 crash, died the next day as a result of her injuries.

A driver and his passenger were critically injured on Wednesday night when his pickup struck another car and then a utility pole near the Smith Haven Mall.

The Suffolk County Police Department said 34-year-old Christopher Ferchland, a Farmingville resident, was driving the pickup truck, a 2007 Lincoln MKL, west on Route 25 at about 7 p.m., the time of the crash. Another car traveling toward him from the opposite direction, a 2015 Honda Crosstour, attempted to make a left turn into the mall and collided with the truck. After hitting the Honda, the Lincoln crashed into a utility pole.

Police said Ferchland and his female passenger were in critical condition at Stony Brook University Hospital while the Honda’s driver, 50-year-old Brentwood resident Jeanette Acevedo, and her female passenger were treated for non-life-threatening injuries at the same hospital.

Both the Honda and the Lincoln were impounded for safety checks, police said, and detectives from the SCPD’s 4th Squad are investigating the crash. Anyone with information is asked to call them at 631-854-8452.

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Police charged a man with driving without a license Tuesday night after a crash that sent two officers and two civilians to the hospital.

According to the Suffolk County Police Department, 4th Precinct officers John Kurklen and Adam Tuthill had recently stopped a 2013 Hyundai Sonata for a vehicle and traffic infraction on the westbound side of Route 347 in Hauppauge when another vehicle, a 2001 Toyota Corolla, crashed into the back of their police cruiser. The police car then struck the two officers, as well as the two people who had been in the Hyundai.

Kurklen and Tuthill were treated at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown and released, police said, but the pair from the Hyundai, a 25-year-old woman from Levittown and a 37-year-old Farmingdale man, suffered multiple internal injuries and are in serious condition at Stony Brook University Hospital.

Police said during the traffic stop — which happened east of Route 111 around 8:30 p.m. — before being struck by the Toyota, officers recovered drug paraphernalia and heroin from the Hyundai, of which the Levittown resident was the driver.

The Toyota’s driver, 24-year-old Brentwood resident Orvin Antonio Gabriel, was charged with unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and with operating a vehicle while approaching a parked, stopped or standing emergency vehicle.

Attorney information for Gabriel was not immediately available. He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

No charges have been filed against the Hyundai’s passengers.

Police impounded all three vehicles involved in the crash for safety checks. Vehicular Crime Unit detectives are investigating the case, and ask that anyone who may have witnessed the crash to call them at 631-852-6555.

The scene of the Friday evening crash on Woodbury Road. Photo by Marilyn McDermott

By Rohma Abbas & Elana Glowatz

An elderly woman died in Cold Spring Harbor Friday evening when she lost control of her car on Woodbury Road and crashed into the woods.

The Suffolk County Police Department said 80-year-old Eugenia Kouwenhoven, a Huntington resident, was driving a 2014 Buick Regal west on the road at the time of the crash, close to 6:30 p.m. She was pronounced dead at Stony Brook University Hospital.

Woodbury Road has been the topic of much debate at Huntington Town Board meetings, as residents have cited numerous car crashes along the road. The town commissioned a traffic study of the thoroughfare, but the stretch of roadway along which Kouwenhoven crashed and lost her life is not in the traffic calming study area, according to A.J. Carter, a spokesman for the town.

“The unfortunate accident occurred on a portion of Woodbury Road that is past Cold Spring Harbor train station, which is not part of the study area,” Carter said.

Marilyn McDermott, a resident of Woodbury Road, echoed similar sentiments. She questioned whether the accident had much to do with the safety road. She was on the scene shortly after the accident and said she didn’t see any skid marks.

“I’m not sure if it was inherent of the actual dangers of the road or singular to her,” McDermott said in a Monday phone interview.

Kouwenhoven was a widow, and a mother to three children, a grandmother to 10, and a great grandmother to four, according to her obituary on A.L Jacobsen Funeral Home’s website.

Attempts to reach Kouwenhoven’s family this week were unsuccessful.

Friends of Kouwenhoven, who also went by “Jean” or “Gene,” shared some of their memories and condolences on an online tribute page.

One person spoke of Kouwenhoven’s gourmet cooking skills and her “kind and thoughtful” nature. She said Kouwenhoven would often wash and style the hair of neighborhood girls before a birthday party.

“Can you imagine someone taking the time to [style] 2 or 3 young girls’ hair?” Janet Stanton Schaaf wrote. “It took hours! I felt so pampered and so glamorous, and so cared for. What a wonderful feeling”

Schaaf continued, “Jean had such a positive impact on my life and I hope she now sees how much she added to our little Huntington neighborhood of kids. Thanks for everything, Jean.”

Cathy and Walter Kennedy also left a message honoring Kouwenhoven.

“She was so full of life and knew how to enjoy it,” they wrote. “She had a special way of wrapping herself around your heart. We feel blessed to have known her and to have shared many a time with her.”

While he’s not handling the case and doesn’t know the exact details, 2nd Precinct Dt. Sgt. James Scimoni said it’s “definitely possible” the woman could have undergone a medical emergency before crashing. But there’s no confirmation of that, he said.

On the subject of Woodbury Road traffic safety improvements, town officials have already embarked on fixes to attempt to make the road safer.

On Tuesday, the town released a statement noting that it had implemented the first phase of its traffic study consultants’ recommendations. Town highway department workers trimmed trees along the shoulder of the road, running 2.5 miles from Main Street in Huntington village to Pulaski Road in Cold Spring Harbor. The workers also replaced road signs to increase visibility — the 165 new signs are larger than the ones they replaced, including larger chevron signs to further highlight the horizontal curves in the roadway.

The town installed new turn and reverse turn signs to replace curve and reverse curve signs, bringing the signage up to federal standards. Also, the town upgraded the reflectivity of traffic signs.

“That stuff is the first phase,” Councilwoman Susan Berland (D) said in a phone interview. “Now we’re waiting for the analysis of the road for the second phase to implement the suggestions for narrowing the road, the markings and the strips in the middle.”

This story was last updated on Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 5 p.m.

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A driver was seriously injured in Huntington Station early Friday morning when he hit a utility pole.

The Suffolk County Police Department said the man had been driving south on New York Avenue in a 1991 Mazda SUV at about 2:20 a.m. when his car left the road and hit the pole, just north of Schwab Road.

The man was brought to Huntington Hospital with serious injuries, then transferred to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.

Police identified the victim as 50-year-old West Babylon resident Giovanni Saccente.

Detectives from the SCPD’s 2nd Squad are investigating the case, and the Mazda was impounded for a safety check.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call detectives at 631-854-8252 or to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 800-220-TIPS.

Story last updated on Friday, Aug. 28, at 1:15 p.m.

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A Middle Country man may have been unwell on Wednesday when his pickup truck crashed into the center median on the Long Island Expressway, before he was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The Suffolk County Police Department said the 63-year-old Coram man, David Hutchings, was driving a 2005 GMC east near exit 63 in Holtsville at about 1:15 p.m. when he collided with the median near the carpool lane. The pickup came to a stop after the crash.

According to police, officers and rescue personnel arrived to find Hutchings unconscious behind the wheel. The Holtsville Fire Department ambulance brought him to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said detectives from the SCPD’s 6th Squad, who are investigating the incident, believe Hutchings experienced a medical emergency, causing the fatal one-car crash.

The pickup was impounded for safety checks.

Woodbury Road residents have called the thoroughfare unsafe in recent years. File photo by Barbara Donlon

Plans to calm traffic and reduce car crashes on Woodbury Road accelerated on Tuesday.

The Huntington Town Board voted to pay traffic consultants an additional $16,635 to design some of the recommendations they made in a traffic- calming study of the road released earlier this year.

In the study, GEB HiRise, of Uniondale, recommended things like larger and more reflective signs; thicker lane markings; rumble strips in the double yellow lines in the center of the road; reduced speed limits in some areas from 30 to 25 miles per hour; and narrower lanes in some areas.

Residents in the area have been calling for traffic-calming changes, citing a number of crashes along the road.

Huntington Town Councilwoman Susan Berland (D), who has spearheaded the issue, said after the town board meeting on Tuesday that this measure takes traffic calming on Woodbury Road “to the next level.”

The engineering firm will be charged with mapping out where things like rumble strips will go, where to narrow the road and exploring the road-skidding aspect of the issue.

“This is the next step,” Berland said.

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A pedestrian was seriously hurt on Saturday night as he tried to cross New York Avenue in Huntington Station.

The Suffolk County Police Department said 20-year-old Antonio Molina was hit by a Jeep on the road, just north of East 18th Street, shortly before 11 p.m. and is now in serious condition at Stony Brook University Hospital.

The 2002 Jeep had been driving north on New York Avenue at the time of the crash, police said, and its 26-year-old driver was not hurt.

Both the pedestrian and the driver are Huntington Station residents.

Police impounded the Jeep for a safety check.

Detectives from the SCPD’s 2nd Squad are investigating the crash. Anyone with information is asked the call them at 631-854-8252.

Red ribbons are one way North Shore residents are remembering the fatal crash victims. Photo from Smithtown Historical Society

One week has passed, but no amount of time can ever truly heal the wounds endured by the greater North Shore community since four of its own were killed in a horrific limousine crash.

Anyone driving through the streets of Smithtown and its surrounding communities this week could notice the red ribbons wrapped around trees in memory of Smithtown’s Brittney Schulman, 23, and Lauren Baruch, 24, as well as Stephanie Belli, 23, of Kings Park, and Amy Grabina, 23, of Commack. The four girls were killed when Steven Romeo, 55, T-boned their limousine with his pickup truck in Cutchogue last Saturday, injuring Romeo, along with limo driver Carlos Pino, 58, of Bethpage, Joelle Dimonte, 25, of Elwood, Melissa Angela Crai, 23, of Scarsdale, Alicia Arundel, 24, of Setauket, and Olga Lipets, 24, of Brooklyn.

After the crash, Romeo was arraigned at Eastern Long Island Hospital and charged with driving while intoxicated. He was initially ordered held in lieu of $500,000 cash bail, or $1 million bond, but that bail was reduced to $50,000 cash or $100,000 bond last Thursday, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota. At a press conference on Friday, Spota said Romeo had recorded a blood alcohol content of .066 percent when he was tested roughly one hour after the crash. The DWI charge, however, was not dropped despite his BAC coming in below the legal limit of .08, Spota said. No additional charges were filed against Romeo as the investigation continued.

Romeo’s court date, which was originally set for last week, was adjourned to Sept. 18.

The past week saw the funerals of all four of the victims, while those injured were released from hospital care by the middle of this week. The North Shore community planned to take one of its first steps toward closure on Wednesday night at Smithtown High School West, where residents, elected officials and members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving were scheduled to meet. The event was borne out of a Facebook page titled “Candlelight Vigil for Our Girls,” which was put into action in the days following the tragedy. By Wednesday, the page had collected more than 6,000 names to its roster and countless photos of mourning and support for the victims’ families.

Marianne Howard, executive director with the Smithtown Historical Society, was one of the several Smithtown residents to tie red ribbons around trees in front of the society’s property. She said various businesses throughout town, including Towers Flowers of Nesconset and James Cress Florist of Smithtown, helped donate the ribbons to the cause.

“We mourn the loss of four beautiful souls who were taken too early from our community,” she said. “We send our deepest condolences to their families and friends. May they rest in peace.”

Chabad at Stony Brook also signed onto the cause of finding good in a tragic situation, launching its own Facebook event page, “responding to dark, with light,” in memory of the four girls and challenging residents to commit 400 random acts of goodness and kindness in their honor.

Chaya Klein Grossbaum of Chabad at Stony Brook said once the goal was reached, the group would print a book detailing each singular act.