Montauk Highway crash causes gas leak in Brookhaven, cops say

A traffic accident that caused a gas leak closed Montauk Highway for about four hours overnight in Brookhaven, Suffolk County police said.

The one-vehicle crash occurred at 11:06 p.m. Tuesday near Shoestring Lane.

Police said a man lost control of his Dodge Ram pickup truck, striking a pole and knocking it down. The driver was not injured and there was no criminality, police said.

But the force of the collision ruptured an underground gas line, police said.

The Brookhaven Fire Department, South Country Ambulance, PSEG and National Grid all responded to the scene. The road was reopened at about 3:30 a.m., police said.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”