2 killed, 3 badly hurt in separate Sunday crashes on Peninsula Boulevard in Rockville Centre, police say

A 24-year-old driver was in critical condition and his passenger was killed following a one-car crash Sunday night in Rockville Centre.

Nassau County police said the crash scene was in nearly the same location on Peninsula Boulevard that saw another fatal, single-vehicle crash just 18 hours earlier. In that crash, a woman passenger, 28-year-old Merlin Lopez of Woodmere, was killed and two people were in critical condition, police said.

The Sunday night crash occurred at 10:35 p.m. on southbound Peninsula Boulevard, about one mile south of the Southern State Parkway.

Police said the vehicle involved was a 2006 Mini Cooper that “left the roadway,” striking a tree.

The driver was hospitalized with what police described as “severe” injuries. His passenger, 22-year-old Larry Torres of Far Rockaway, died at the scene, police said.

It was not immediately clear if rainfall from passing storms, speed or road conditions played a role in the crash.

Police said the cause was under investigation.

Police have not released the names of those hurt in the crashes.

Police said the earlier crash occurred at 4:24 a.m. Sunday on southbound Peninsula Boulevard.

A 2010 Nissan Altima driven by a 20-year-old man, left the roadway and struck “several trees,” killing Lopez.  The driver and a 32-year-old female passenger were both hospitalized in critical condition, police said.

The cause of that crash also remains under investigation.

Peninsula Boulevard is a major connector road between Hempstead and the Five Towns area and between the Southern State Parkway and Sunrise Highway in Lynbrook.

The section through Rockville Centre, south of the Southern State and north of Sunrise, bordering the Rockville Centre Sports Complex and Hempstead Lake State Park, is a divided highway with two lanes in either direction, a grass island median between those northbound and southbound lanes, and mostly straight. However, drivers encounter a sweeping right-hand and then a sharper left-hand curve near the southern end of the lake near Lake Drive.

The posted speed limit for most of that section of Peninsula is 45 mph, while the advised warning limit for the curved sections is 35 mph.

Stretches of Peninsula Boulevard near last weekend's crash site have seen several other deadly collisions.

Last December, a Lynbrook teenager was killed in a three-car crash at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Peninsula Boulevard in Lynbrook, police said.

And in June 2022, a high-speed, drunken-driving crash at Peninsula Boulevard and Edwards Avenue in Woodmere left a 15-year-old girl dead. A West Hempstead man is facing charges for his role in the crash.

With Robert Brodsky

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

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.”