Drunken driver strikes Suffolk patrol car, injuring officer, police say
A Bay Shore man was arrested and charged with drunk driving after police said he crashed into a police patrol vehicle Sunday evening in Brentwood.
The officer was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The crash was the second on Sunday involving a drunk driver hitting a marked Suffolk County police patrol car, police said. In an earlier incident, police said a Huntington Station man crashed into a Highway Patrol Bureau vehicle on the westbound Long Island Expressway in Hauppauge, injuring a sergeant before colliding into a second vehicle.
In both cases, police said, the police vehicles had emergency lights activated.
In the second incident, police said the patrol unit also had its siren activated, with the Third Precinct officer responding to a call. That crash occurred at the intersection of 5th Avenue and Arizona Avenue around 9:15 p.m., police said. Police said Nicolas Chicas, 48, was driving a 2000 Toyota Corolla in the left lane of northbound 5th Avenue when "he attempted to turn right onto Arizona Avenue and crashed into the driver's door of a marked police vehicle."
That patrol unit was northbound in the right lane and was responding to a call when the crash occurred, police said.
Police said the officer was airlifted with undisclosed injuries. Chicas was not injured, police said.
Police said a subsequent investigation determined Chicas was intoxicated. He was charged with Driving While Intoxicated and was held overnight for arraignment Monday in First District Court in Central Islip.
The earlier incident occurred just before 4:45 a.m. on the westbound LIE near Exit 55, police said.
In that incident, police said a Huntington Station man driving a 2021 Volkswagen veered off the road, striking a Highway Patrol Bureau vehicle that was on the shoulder behind a stopped vehicle. The Volkswagen then hit a 2008 Ford in the main travel lanes, police said.
The sergeant in that incident was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he was treated and released.
The driver of the Volkswagen, identified by police as Tracy Smith, 30, of Huntington Station, was not injured.
Smith was charged with DWI and issued a summons for violation of the Move Over Law, which requires drivers to move over a lane when passing a police vehicle or other emergency response vehicle stopped with its emergency lights activated. Smith also was held overnight at the Third Precinct for arraignment Monday in First District Court.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
