Cops: Driver charged after hitting Suffolk police vehicle on LIE in Hauppauge

A Huntington Station man faces a driving while intoxicated charge after hitting a Suffolk police vehicle early Sunday on a shoulder of the LIE in Hauppauge, injuring a sergeant inside, authorities said.

Tracy Smith, 30, was driving a 2021 Volkswagen about 4:45 a.m. on the westbound Long Island Expressway, a half-mile west of exit 55, when it veered off the road, Suffolk police said in a news release.

The Volkswagen hit a Suffolk police Highway Patrol Bureau vehicle that had its lights activated and was parked on the shoulder behind another vehicle, police said. The Volkswagen then struck a 2008 Ford traveling on the LIE, according to police.

A Highway Patrol Bureau sergeant who was inside the police vehicle was treated at Stony Brook University Hospital and released. Neither Smith nor the occupants of the Ford were injured.

Smith was charged with DWI and issued a summons for violating the Move Over Law that requires a motorist to slow down or move over when seeing an emergency vehicle with its lights on.

He was arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip and released on his own recognizance. His case was adjourned until March 1, according to online records.

With Darwin Yanes

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.