Freeport driver high in crash involving police SUV, cops say

A Freeport man was high on drugs when he struck the rear of a car late Tuesday, setting off a chain-reaction crash that injured two other drivers, including an on-duty Nassau County police officer, a department spokesman said.

Patrick Ryan Kelly, 31, of Westend Avenue, was charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs after crashing into a 2007 Toyota that was stopped at a traffic light on Hempstead Turnpike and Franklin Avenue in East Meadow shortly after 9 p.m., police said.

Kelly was driving a 1988 Honda at a “high rate of speed” when he hit the Toyota, which then hit a police patrol vehicle that was escorting an ambulance, police said.

The police vehicle and ambulance also were stopped at the light at the time of the crash.

Both the officer and the driver of the Toyota, a woman, 53, were treated for neck and back pain at a hospital and released, police said.

Kelly was taken to a hospital with a head laceration and neck and back pain.

His arraignment is pending, a police spokesman said Wednesday.