Police: Head-on car crash kills man, teen

A Ronkonkoma man and a Stony Brook teen were killed on Saturday night in a head-on car crash in Ronkonkoma, Suffolk police said.

Police said Brian Mullady, 33, was driving a 2001 Dodge pickup truck south on Smithtown Avenue near Marconi Avenue about 11:46 p.m. when his vehicle suddenly crossed over into oncoming traffic.

Mullady's truck collided head-on with a 2004 Cadillac Escalade that was traveling north on Smithtown Avenue, police said.

Mullady and a passenger in the Escalade, 19-year-old Andrea Giattino, were pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the Escalade, Justin Quaranta, 23, of Ronkonkoma, was taken to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in East Patchogue, where he was treated and released.

Paul Marotta, chief of department of the Lakeland Fire Department, which responded to the scene, said Quaranta sustained minor lacerations on one of his arms.

Giattino's mother, Marianne Lenzner, of Stony Brook, said her daughter and her boyfriend, Quaranta, were returning home from a night out at the time of the accident. Earlier that day, Giattino spent time with her father and visited Heckscher State Park in East Islip, she said.

"She was fun-loving, free-spirited, very caring about everyone," Lenzner said Sunday. "God just brought home an angel too early."

Giattino, who turned 19 last month and grew up in Stony Brook, was looking forward to starting her second year at Suffolk County Community College, her mother said.

Both vehicles were impounded for safety checks, and the investigation is ongoing. Police ask anyone with information on this crash to contact the Fifth Squad at 631-854-8535.