Driver crashes into Commack gas station, injuring 2, arrested for driving while impaired, police say
The driver of a Dodge Challenger, right, crashed into a Sunoco gas station in Commack Wednesday, injuring a man and woman getting gas in the car at left, police said. Credit: Evan Rolla
A Coram man was arrested and charged with driving while ability impaired after police said his car careened off Veterans Memorial Highway in Commack late Wednesday night, crashing into a gas station, a gas pump and a vehicle in the gas station lot — injuring a man and woman in a car.
The station was the scene of a 2018 crash that left two dead when their car ran off Jericho Turnpike and into the gas pumps, leading to a fire that destroyed the station, police said.
Suffolk County police said the latest incident occurred at about 11 p.m. at the Sunoco station at Vets Highway and Jericho Turnpike. Police said Hunter Addonizio, 21, was driving a 2010 Dodge Challenger westbound on Vets Highway and that as he attempted to merge onto Jericho Turnpike the car left the road, crashing into the gas station at 2211 Jericho Tpke. — hitting the gas pump and the other vehicle.
Hunter Addonizio, 21, is led out of the Sixth Precinct for arraignment at First District Court in Central Islip on Thursday on charges connected with crashing into a Commack gas station. Credit: James Carbone
Police did not release the identities of the man and woman injured in the vehicle that was struck, but said both were transported to South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore for treatment of minor injuries.
Addonizio was charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs and alcohol and was held overnight for arraignment Friday in First District Court in Central Islip. It was not immediately clear if he is represented by counsel.
The station was the scene of a horrific crash on Sept. 12, 2018, that saw a westbound 2013 Audi leave Jericho Turnpike and crash into the gas pumps at about 2:10 a.m., police said.
That crash claimed the lives of driver Hector Sanchez Jr., 27, of Brentwood, and a passenger in his car, Shawn Jenkins Jr., 24, of Bay Shore.
The following day, two pedestrians headed to a candlelight vigil for Sanchez and Jenkins at the station were struck by a motorist — suffering what police described as "non-life-threatening injuries."
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.”
