Van driver delivering mail hurt in crash

Rescue personnel freed the driver of a van delivering mail to Newsday on Wednesday morning after the van was in an accident on Pinelawn Road in Melville, according to Suffolk County police and a company spokesman.

Martin Dorcin, 62, of Westbury, a driver for The Millennium Group, was returning to Newsday after picking up mail from the Huntington Station post office at about 7:03 a.m. when he apparently lost control of his 2000 Ford van, crossed the median on Pinelawn and hit a 2000 Kia near Old East Neck Road, police said.

Dorcin was driving south on Pinelawn, and the Kia, driven by Rhonda Norman, of Amityville, was heading north, police said.

Merrick Blackwood, a mailroom manager for The Millennium Group, said hydraulic tools were used to cut away the driver-side door and the steering column so Dorcin could be removed from the van.

Dorcin had a broken arm and was taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, Blackwood said. The Millennium Group, based in Tinton Falls, N.J., handles interoffice mail for Newsday, Blackwood said.

He was not sure if Dorcin had any other injuries. "I called the hospital and they told me he was unable to talk," Blackwood said.

Norman was taken to Plainview Hospital with "non-life-threatening injuries," police said.

The accident closed Old East Neck Road and a portion of Pinelawn Road between Colonial Springs and Half Hollow roads for a short time, police said.

Two other accidents knocked down utility wires in Commack and Lake Ronkonkoma, police said.

In the first, a car knocked down a utility police on Indian Head Road in Commack at 10:51 p.m. Police said the driver was taken to St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police said power was briefly knocked out in the area. Holy Family Regional School, at 2 Indian Head Rd., canceled classes for the day because of the outage.

In the second crash, a car struck a utility pole on Railroad Avenue just east of Knickerbocker, downing wires, in Lake Ronkonkoma, police said. Police said the driver fled.