Cops: Sunrise Highway crash involved DWI

A drunken driver and his passenger suddenly got out of their car on Sunrise Highway in East Patchogue Wednesday, causing another driver to rear-end the stopped car, Suffolk County sheriffs said.

The impact moved the first car, which hit the passenger, said Michael Sharkey, chief of staff at the sheriff's department.

The passenger was taken to Stony Brook University Medical Center, and the driver, Tenchue Atkinson, 30, of Patchogue, was awaiting arraignment early Thursday evening on a driving while intoxicated charge, Sharkey said.

Atkinson was going east on Sunrise Highway, a quarter mile west of Exit 53, at Route 112, when the accident happened at 3:08 a.m., sheriffs said.

"Something I guess went awry with their car, and they stopped and got out," Sharkey said. "However, they stopped with their vehicle still in the lane of travel."

The condition of the victim, whose identity has not been released, was not known. The other driver was not injured.

The crash closed the eastbound roadway for about two hours.