Pregnant woman crashes SUV while impaired by drugs in Kings Park, police say

A pregnant woman high on heroin crashed her vehicle in Kings Park and was revived with an overdose antidote while her passenger was extricated from the wreckage, Suffolk police said Thursday.

Danielle Wisnieski, 26, of Kings Park was arraigned Thursday on a charge of driving while impaired by drugs, a misdemeanor.

She lost control of her Cadillac Escalade about 8 p.m. Wednesday and it flipped, hitting a tree and fence on the property of Plycon Transportation Group on Indian Head Road, near Old Northport Road, said Sgt. Michael Alfano of the Fourth Precinct.

Wisnieski, who is 26 weeks pregnant, was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries, police said.

Passenger Randal Jernigan, 34, of Kings Park, was nearly ejected from the sport utility vehicle and was treated for minor injuries at Huntington Hospital, police said.

"Somebody observed her swerving on the road before she crashed," Alfano said.

Wisnieski told officers she had used heroin, police said.

At the scene, she was given a nasal spray of the drug Narcan by two officers who are paramedics assigned to the precinct's Medical Crisis Action Team, known as MedCAT, which handles health emergencies, police said.

Narcan counteracts opiates, from heroin to oxycodone. It works by knocking opioid molecules from the brainstem's nerve cells.

It has no major side effects and remains inert if no opiates are present in the body, experts have said.

Details on whether Narcan has an effect on fetuses were not immediately available, but Alfano said he did not suspect any downside to using it on a pregnant woman in an overdose crisis: "I don't think it would be any worse than heroin."

At the hospital, drug recognition experts from the police highway unit observed Wisnieski and determined she was under the influence of drugs, Alfano said.

Wisnieski was released on a $10,000 bond. She was represented by Legal Aid, which does not comment on cases.

Attempts to interview Wisnieski, her family members and Jernigan were unsuccessful.