Two women die after head-on wrong-way collision

A Levittown woman was driving drunk and the wrong way on Route 109 in East Farmingdale late Sunday when she struck another car head on, killing herself and the other driver, police said.

Susan Krebser, 46, died Monday morning at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, Suffolk County police said. She had been charged with driving while intoxicated before her death.

Krebser was driving a 1991 Buick northwest in the oncoming southeast lanes of Route 109 near Route 110 when she crashed head-on into a 2012 Kia Forte being driven by Jeanne Grazia about 11 p.m. Sunday.

Grazia, a 70-year-old Islip resident, was pronounced dead at NUMC, police said.

Grazia had been driving home from her job at the McCourt & Trudden Funeral Home in Farmingdale, according to her son, Bobby Grazia of Islip. She worked as a greeter at the home and would console widows and others.

"She did enjoy doing it because it cheered them up, it helped them out," he said. "She liked being in that position to help people -- she always had a smile on her face."

Bobby Grazia said he had spoken to his mother earlier in the day and was waiting at her home after making her dinner Sunday night.

According to her son, Grazia was born in Hicksville and also lived in Elmont and Massapequa before moving to Islip. She was a hair colorist at a Hicksville beauty salon, where she met and married the owner, Frank, with whom she had three sons. He died of a heart attack in 1987.

She enjoyed gardening, spending time with her granddaughter and worked as a nurse technician at Franklin Hospital in Valley Stream before retiring five years ago, her son said.

"She was very vibrant," he said. "She had many more years to live. She had cancer four times and that didn't take her. She beat cancer every time."

Besides Bobby Grazia, she is survived by her other sons Frank of Mastic, Michael of Smithtown, a granddaughter, her brother James Erwin of Buffalo and sister Linda Pursley of Philadelphia.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.Detectives ask anyone with information about the crash to call the vehicular crime unit at 631-852-6555.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com,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.”