Woman, 82, killed in Woodbury crash

An 82-year-old woman was killed Tuesday afternoon when the car she was riding in collided with two other vehicles in Woodbury, Nassau police said.

In an unrelated crash Tuesday evening in Long Beach that also involved three vehicles, several people were seriously injured and a major roadway was closed for several hours, police said.

The driver of the car in the Woodbury crash, an 82-year-old man, and the driver of one of the other vehicles there suffered nonlife-threatening injuries, police said.

The woman who died, whose name was not immediately released, was a passenger in a 1983 Buick on Jericho Turnpike when the accident occurred at 12:30 p.m., detectives said.

The westbound Buick collided with another westbound vehicle, police said, and then crossed into the eastbound lane and collided with a third vehicle.

There was no apparent criminality in the accident, police investigators said.

In Long Beach, a Honda car was traveling erratically westbound on Lido Boulevard about 4:20 p.m., Long Beach police said, when it struck a utility pole guide wire, crossed through the median and collided with two vehicles.

Occupants of those vehicles were taken to Long Beach Medical Center and South Nassau Communities Hospital, police said.

Both Long Beach police and Nassau homicide detectives were investigating the accident.

Long Beach resident Rick Kaiser, 56, who lives on that street, was in his house when he heard the crash and ran outside.

"It sounded like an explosion," Kaiser said. "He hit the transformer and careened into the middle of the street."

Kaiser said a fire department building is nearby and he saw firefighters running from there to the crash site. Emergency vehicles arrived quickly, and victims were cut out of the wreckage and taken away on stretchers, he said.

The roadway near the crash site was still partially closed after 9 p.m.