2 men dead after drivers lose control of vehicles and veer off road in separate parkway crashes

Two men were killed early Saturday on Long Island parkways in separate crashes several miles and hours apart, according to the New York State Police.

In each crash, the driver lost control and veered off the road in the Town of Islip.

In the first crash, the driver was killed instantly, just before 1 a.m., on the eastbound Southern State Parkway west of Exit 42S. He was identified as 25-year-old Gustavo Santos, of Bay Shore, who was driving a 2020 Toyota Scion east in the right lane when he went off onto the right shoulder. The vehicle then spun around and struck a tree on the driver’s side.

The victim of the second crash, 51-year-old Silas Rosales, was pronounced dead at South Shore University Hospital. He had succumbed to injuries he sustained when his son — 29-year-old Silas Rosales-Pleitez, the driver of a 2009 Toyota Corolla in which they were traveling northbound on the Sagtikos State Parkway ramp from the eastbound Southern State — “lost control, went off the roadway onto the left shoulder and struck a guiderail with the passenger’s side of the vehicle,” according to a police news release. Both men are from Freeport.

The son was brought to the same hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

So far this year, there have been 43 fatal crashes in Nassau, in which 45 people were killed (29 drivers, five passengers, 10 pedestrians and one bicyclist), and 60 fatal crashes in Suffolk, with 64 people killed (38 drivers, six passengers, 17 pedestrians and three bicyclists), according to preliminary tallies from the Albany-based Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.