Driver killed, 3 hurt in Glen Cove crash

A 20-year-old New Cassel woman was killed -- and her three teenage passengers injured -- after she lost control of her car in an industrial area of Glen Cove and hit a concrete wall and a utility pole, causing the vehicle to overturn, police said.

Diana Pereyra died at the crash on Sea Cliff Avenue, Nassau County police said.

One of the passengers, a 19-year-old man, suffered brain injuries, police said, and remained hospitalized in critical condition.

Two female passengers, 18 and 19, were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police did not detail the injuries.

Tire tracks at the scene indicate that the driver lost control of the vehicle just after she drove over the railroad tracks that bisected the avenue, said Det. Lt. Thomas Fitzpatrick of the Glen Cove police.

"Somehow her speed made her lose control of the car," Fitzpatrick said.

The vehicle bounced off a wall on the south side of the avenue, and struck the utility pole on the driver's side of the car.

Fitzpatrick said the group had been coming from a nearby birthday party and going to CVS. Family members said Pereyra was driving with the friends to buy tea at the CVS when the crash occurred at 11:25 p.m.

The car ended up on its side after the crash, police said. Pereyra was pronounced dead at 12:04 a.m.

As dozens of friends and family members gathered to remember Pereyra, her mother, Maria Bonilla, crying as her relatives gazed at a framed photograph of her daughter, and her brother recalled a woman who would do anything for her friends and family.

"She was always supportive," Allan Sanchez, 25, said. "She was always the type of person that, if you were in some kind of trouble, she would do the impossible to help you out."

Sanchez said Pereyra would dote on his son, her nephew.

A cousin, Samantha Bonilla, recalled her long talks with Pereyra about their futures.

"She talked about how she wanted to be somebody in life," she said.

The family said Pereyra was taking community college classes and working as a hostess at the Cheesecake Factory at the Source Mall in Westbury.

She aspired to become a lawyer, they said, adding that she was working to help the family stay current on their mortgage.

She had attended Westbury High School before moving to Honduras to stay with family, the cousin said.