Car crashes into Freeport canal after driving through parking lot and jumping bulkhead and boat, officials say
Officials said a speeding car careened off the road, traveling through a marina parking lot, then jumping a bulkhead — and a boat — before crashing into a canal in Freeport on Tuesday morning, leaving one person seriously injured.
The single-vehicle crash occurred off Hudson Avenue, the car ending up in about 18 feet of water between Hudson and Gordon Place, Freeport Fire Department Executive Director Ray Maguire said.
A man whose identity has not been released was extricated from the submerged vehicle, first with the assistance of a Ukranian man just recently arrived in the United States and then with help from East Rockaway, Freeport and Wantagh firefighters, as well as Freeport and Nassau police.
Maguire said the male driver was transported to a hospital in critical but stable condition.
Maguire said a search of the submerged vehicle and the waters around it by fire department dive teams, Nassau County police EMS and Freeport police did not find other victims.
Authorities received a 911 call reporting the incident at 9:17 a.m., Maguire said, and first responders from the Freeport Police Department arrived on the scene, which was south of Atlantic Avenue and northwest of Cow Meadow Park, to find the car in the water — and a good Samaritan trying to pull the driver from the vehicle.
“The reports are that the car entered the water from the Hudson Avenue side, that it went over a boat, and then entered the actual canal,” Maguire said. “A civilian heard the actual collision . . . He witnessed the legs of the victim hanging out of the window of the car. He jumped into the water, grabbed the victim. As he was doing that, Freeport police officers were arriving on scene — and they then entered the water.”
Maguire said the victim was “somewhat combative,” but responders were able to get the man “under control” — and out of the water and into an ambulance, where paramedics were “able to work on him immediately.”
“He was in bad shape,” Maguire said.
The good Samaritan was Volodymyr Zubko, 38, a Ukranian who said he arrived in the United States four days ago — and is renting on Gordon Place.
“I was at home in my room and I’m thinking it’s a boat,” Zubko said.
Zubko said he heard neighbors screaming: “ ‘Help, somebody! Help!’ ”
“But,” he said, “nobody jumped in the water.”
So, Zubko said, he did.
Maguire said police were investigating the cause of the crash.
With James Carbone
Officials said a speeding car careened off the road, traveling through a marina parking lot, then jumping a bulkhead — and a boat — before crashing into a canal in Freeport on Tuesday morning, leaving one person seriously injured.
The single-vehicle crash occurred off Hudson Avenue, the car ending up in about 18 feet of water between Hudson and Gordon Place, Freeport Fire Department Executive Director Ray Maguire said.
A man whose identity has not been released was extricated from the submerged vehicle, first with the assistance of a Ukranian man just recently arrived in the United States and then with help from East Rockaway, Freeport and Wantagh firefighters, as well as Freeport and Nassau police.
Maguire said the male driver was transported to a hospital in critical but stable condition.
Maguire said a search of the submerged vehicle and the waters around it by fire department dive teams, Nassau County police EMS and Freeport police did not find other victims.
Authorities received a 911 call reporting the incident at 9:17 a.m., Maguire said, and first responders from the Freeport Police Department arrived on the scene, which was south of Atlantic Avenue and northwest of Cow Meadow Park, to find the car in the water — and a good Samaritan trying to pull the driver from the vehicle.
“The reports are that the car entered the water from the Hudson Avenue side, that it went over a boat, and then entered the actual canal,” Maguire said. “A civilian heard the actual collision . . . He witnessed the legs of the victim hanging out of the window of the car. He jumped into the water, grabbed the victim. As he was doing that, Freeport police officers were arriving on scene — and they then entered the water.”
Maguire said the victim was “somewhat combative,” but responders were able to get the man “under control” — and out of the water and into an ambulance, where paramedics were “able to work on him immediately.”
“He was in bad shape,” Maguire said.
The good Samaritan was Volodymyr Zubko, 38, a Ukranian who said he arrived in the United States four days ago — and is renting on Gordon Place.
“I was at home in my room and I’m thinking it’s a boat,” Zubko said.
Zubko said he heard neighbors screaming: “ ‘Help, somebody! Help!’ ”
“But,” he said, “nobody jumped in the water.”
So, Zubko said, he did.
Maguire said police were investigating the cause of the crash.
With James Carbone
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.
