Shirley woman dies after bus crash in East Patchogue, cops say
The scene of a fatal crash on eastbound Sunrise Highway service road Thursday morning. Credit: James Carbone
A woman died Thursday morning after crashing her SUV into a school bus that was parked along the right-hand shoulder of the eastbound Sunrise Highway service road in East Patchogue, Suffolk County police said.
Jennifer Dowling, 38, of Shirley, was driving a 2017 Nissan Armada eastbound on the service road at 8:25 a.m. when she struck the back of a 2013 Blue Bird school bus that was parked on the shoulder near Washington Avenue, police said.
The full-size school bus was unoccupied, except for the driver, Thomas Noble, 64, of Shirley, who was not injured, police said.
A North Patchogue Fire Department chief, Thomas Wassmer, said firefighters extinguished a fire in the SUV, then extricated the driver and helped police perform CPR.
Firefighters transported Dowling, who Wassmer said suffered chest and body trauma, to Long Island Medical Center in East Patchogue, where she was pronounced dead.
Suffolk detectives ask anyone with information on this crash to call the Fifth Squad at 631-854-8552.
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.”
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