Leandra's Law arrest after Sunrise Highway crash, cops say

A Commack man violated Leandra's Law late Sunday when he got into an accident while driving drunk on Sunrise Highway in Islip Terrace with his 18-month-old daughter as a passenger, Suffolk County police said.

Matthew Langhorn, 26, was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated and endangering the welfare of a child under Leandra's Law, police said.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday at First District Court in Central Islip.

Langhorn was driving west on Sunrise Highway in a 1999 Honda Civic around 10:15 p.m., police said.

In an effort to avoid crashing into a vehicle in front of his -- which had stopped suddenly -- Langhorn swerved and hit a guardrail, police said.

A highway patrol officer dispatched to the scene found that Langhorn was intoxicated and he was arrested, police said.

His girlfriend, who also was a passenger, and their daughter were taken to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore; they were released with no injuries, a police spokeswoman said.

Under Leandra's Law, passed in 2009, drivers who are intoxicated or impaired by drugs with a child younger than 16 in their vehicle can be charged with a felony. The law was passed after the death of Leandra Rosado, 11, who was killed Oct. 11, 2009, in a DWI accident after the minivan in which she was a passenger crashed on West Side Highway in Manhattan.