Cops: Drug-impaired wrong-way driver causes crash

A wrong-way driver, impaired by drugs, crashed nearly head-on into another motorist late Wednesday night in Bayport, causing that car to overturn and leaving the driver seriously injured, police said Thursday.

Suffolk County police said the crash happened at about 11 p.m. on Sunrise Highway between Veterans Memorial Highway and Nicolls Road.

Police said both drivers were taken by Community Ambulance to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in East Patchogue -- the 30-year-old male driver of the car that was struck being listed in serious but stable condition Thursday with "multiple fractures."

Julie Cardona, 55, of Brightwaters, was arrested by Suffolk Highway Patrol Officer Joseph Verdi and charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs. She suffered what police described as "non-life-threatening injuries" in the crash.

Police said Cardona was driving her 1997 Toyota Camry westbound in the eastbound lanes of Sunrise when she crashed into the driver's side front end of the 2002 Nissan Maxima near Vets Highway.

The impact caused the Maxima to overturn, police said.

Police said volunteers from the Bayport Fire Department had to extricate both drivers from their vehicles.

Arraignment details for Cardona were not immediately available.