Alleged drunken driver kills father of three

Thomas Swift picked up his little cousin, 5-year-old Amanda Albrecht, and gave her a king-sized hug Saturday.

It was only hours after Amanda and her 7-year-old twin brothers, Alex and Evan, had been told that their father, Scott Albrecht, was killed in a car crash the night before.

"The kids will never be the same now," said Swift, who was at Albrecht's Patchogue home. "They're not going to have a father anymore."

Scott Albrecht, who worked with computer software for Stop & Shop Supermarkets, was driving home from work Friday night when a drunken driver crossed the center line and slammed into his work van, Suffolk County police said.

Albrecht, 43, died at the crash scene on Montauk Highway, just east of Old South Country Road in Brookhaven.

"They have no daddy for Christmas," said Thomas' brother, Matthew Swift, 39, of Coram, both cousins of Debbie Albrecht, Scott's widow.

Police said they arrested Steven Tolar of Shirley and charged him with driving while intoxicated. Tolar, 53, who was driving a 2002 Lincoln Navigator, was taken to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in East Patchogue for treatment of minor injuries and was awaiting arraignment last night.

During the past 22 years, Tolar has pleaded guilty to a variety of misdemeanors, including operating a motor vehicle without a license, attempted petty larceny, tampering with a witness and criminal possession of a controlled substance, along with a felony charge of attempted criminal possession of a weapon, according to state records.

"This is the problem with the court system," Matthew Swift said. "How many times is someone like this going to be allowed to drive around?"

Saturday, cars filled the driveway leading to the Albrecht home, which Scott Albrecht built with his wife, a nurse at Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson.

Scott Albrecht was a "total tech nerd" who loved to play Wii, his wife's cousins said.

Another cousin, Diane Carberry, 38, of Coram, said Albrecht's only real hobby was his children.

"It's a selfish act," Carberry said of driving while drunk.

With Randi F. Marshall