Pascal Dangin was making a left turn off of Montauk...

Pascal Dangin was making a left turn off of Montauk Highway in his black Range Rover when he was hit head-on by a pickup truck. (April 2, 2010) Credit: Doug Kuntz

If Pascal Dangin has nine lives - and he thinks he might - he just started on his third over the weekend.

Dangin, 46, and his daughter, Cecilia, 13, survived a head-on collision with a suspected drunken driver Friday night in Amagansett, East Hampton Town police said Sunday.

The crash came about 13 months after Dangin walked away unscathed from a fiery plane accident in Montauk during a flight lesson.

"I think I am very lucky," said Dangin, who splits time between Manhattan and Amagansett.

Dangin, a renowned retoucher of fashion photographs, said he tries not to think about the two accidents but he can't help but wonder: Why him?

"I'm a cautious guy," he said. "I had never been in an accident in my life before these two."

In Friday's crash at 8:15 p.m., Dangin was on his way home from the airport with his daughter after returning from a vacation in the Caribbean.

Pascal Dangin, and his daughter, Cecilia Dangin, at their Amagansett...

Pascal Dangin, and his daughter, Cecilia Dangin, at their Amagansett home, April 3,2010, following the head on collision they were involved in the night before. Credit: Doug Kuntz

He was waiting in the eastbound lane of Montauk Highway to make a left turn onto Windmill Lane. A westbound pickup truck driven by Eleanor Cobb, 65, of East Hampton, failed to negotiate a slight turn and smashed into Dangin's Range Rover, said Capt. Michael Sarlo of the East Hampton Town police.

"I was a sitting duck," Dangin said.

Dangin said he was unhurt besides getting a bump on the head. Cecilia, who was in the backseat, was unharmed, he said.

Cobb was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, but she will not be formally charged until Monday at the earliest, Sarlo said, because she was hospitalized for injuries sustained in the crash.

In the March 7, 2009, plane crash, Dangin was practicing takeoffs and landings with a flight instructor when the Cirrus plane veered off the runway and crashed into a tree. Both men jumped out seconds before the plane exploded.

"Maybe next year, at this time, I will take the bus," he said. "Safer."

A winemaker. A jockey. An astronaut. We’re celebrating Women’s History month with a look at these and more female changemakers and trailblazers with ties to long Island. 

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