Cops: Wrong-way driver on LIE faces DWI charge

For the second time in two days, a suspected drunken driver headed the wrong way down a Long Island highway yesterday morning and collided with another car.

But unlike Monday's crash - in which a New York City police officer was killed - Tuesday's collision resulted in no serious injuries.

A series of frantic calls from drivers on the Long Island Expressway in Nassau County began streaming into a 911 dispatch center at 5:02 a.m. Tuesday, reporting that a car was going west in the eastbound lanes, police said. Within three minutes, a caller describing the car to an operator saw it collide with something near Exit 34 in North Hills, according to Det. Lt. Kevin Smith.

The near-head-on collision sent both cars spinning and scattered debris over several lanes. The force of the collision knocked one of the westbound car's tires about two-tenths of a mile east down the highway.

The crash comes a day after NYPD Officer Andre Menzies heading home from work was killed by a wrong-way driver, charged with drunken driving, on the Northern State Parkway early Monday, police said.

The accused wrong-way driver in yesterday's collision, Katelyn A. O'Connell, 22, of Westbury, suffered bruises and abrasions, but is expected to recover. She was given a field sobriety test at the crash site and a subsequent blood test.

O'Connell, who has no known previous arrests, was charged with second-degree assault Wednesday and drunken driving and reckless endangerment Tuesday. She was to be arraigned after getting medical clearance, police said.

The driver of the other vehicle, a 27-year-old father of three from Queens who had been headed to work, was taken to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, where he was found to be in good condition, police said.

"The driver . . . said he only had seconds to react," Smith said. "He may have inadvertently turned the wheel a little bit, creating that almost head-on collision, but just a little bit off center, which may have been the best thing. Otherwise, with a straight impact there would have been . . . nowhere for the cars to spin."

The collision happened a quarter mile west of Shelter Rock Road overpass, between Exits 34 and 35. Emergency vehicles and investigators closed all eastbound lanes at Exit 34, snarling traffic back into Queens on the LIE and triggering delays through the morning's heaviest commuting hours. The LIE reopened around 10:40 a.m.

Just after midnight Monday, Menzies, 35, a father of five, was driving east on the Northern State Parkway from his Queens station when his car was struck by a Chevrolet Astro going the wrong way just east of Wolf Hill Road. The van's driver, Michael Bowen, 50, of Brooklyn, is believed to have taken a U-turn in the eastbound lanes shortly before the crash and later was found to have "a strong smell of alcohol," officials said.

Bowen was treated for minor injuries at Huntington Hospital and taken into custody by Suffolk authorities. He pleaded not guilty to charges of driving while intoxicated and was held on $350,000 cash bail or $500,000 bond.

Police crash reconstruction teams will look at both collisions. O'Connell told officers she had dropped off someone in Mineola before the crash, Smith said. A woman speaking through the door at O'Connell's Westbury home declined comment. Attempts to reach the other driver were unsuccessful.

With Chau Lam

and Will Van Sant