A driver veered into the opposite lane and struck a car head-on in one of at least three fatal crashes in and around the city on Saturday.
A group of friends were traveling on a two-lane highway in the Hamptons over the weekend when a speeding driver veered across the dividing line and hit them head-on, killing four people and himself, the police said on Sunday.
The crash on Montauk Highway in Quogue Village killed two brothers and left a 22-year-old woman critically injured. It was one of at least three crashes on Saturday that police said involved speeding or alcohol — or both. A total of eight people died and five were injured in the Hamptons crash and two others in Queens and Manhattan, the police said.
In the Hamptons crash, a Toyota Prius headed east was struck head-on by Justin B. Mendez, driving a red Nissan Maxima, according to the Quogue Village Police Department. Officers arrived at the scene of the crash in Quogue Village around 11:19 p.m., a department statement said.
The Prius driver, Farhan Zahid, 32, of Bay Shore, died at the scene along with three of his passengers: Ryan J. Kiess, 25, and the two brothers, Michael O. Farell, 20, and James P. Farell, 25, all of Manhasset. The fourth passenger, Brianna M. Maglio, 22, of Garden City, was taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center in critical condition.
Mr. Mendez, 22, was pronounced dead at Southampton Hospital. Investigators believe he was speeding, the police said.
In a comment posted online, Melissa Barrett Rhodes said that she lives near the crash site and saw the aftermath. She said it happened on a blind curve where drivers rarely slow down to the speed limit.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t see someone speeding around that curve,” she wrote in Dan’s Papers, a news outlet focused on the Hamptons. “Everyone in Quogue talks about this site being a death trap.”
She did not respond to messages seeking comment on Sunday.
Lieutenant Daniel Hartman, a 15-year veteran of the department, said he had not handled a crash or taken a complaint about that part of the highway in his career. Thousands of cars use the highway without any issues, he said, but the potential for danger is there.
“It’s a pretty steep turn, there is a grade there,” he said. “If you take it at a greater speed than recommended, it could be dangerous. But if you take it at the speed limit, it is a very safe, very normally traveled road that we don’t have issues with.”
Three other people, including a 10-year-old girl from Copiague, were killed earlier on Saturday in separate crashes involving intoxicated drivers.
The girl, Isabella Granobles, was riding in a Chevy Cruze sedan driven by her mother, Diana Granobles, 31, who was making a left turn on Guy R. Brewer Boulevard in Queens. As she turned, a Nissan Altima headed west on Rockaway Boulevard slammed into her car.
The mother and daughter were rushed from the crash near John F. Kennedy International Airport but died at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center.
The other driver, Tyrone Absolam, 42, was arrested in the hospital and charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault and driving while intoxicated. The police said he was drunk and driving “at a high rate of speed.”
Mr. Absolam and his front passenger, a 38-year-old woman, were hospitalized in critical condition, according to the police. A 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl who had been seated in the back of the car were stabilized in serious condition at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, the police said.
In another fatal accident in Harlem, Jason Graham was riding his motorcycle early Saturday southbound down Frederick Douglass Boulevard, when a Dodge Durango driven by a man who police said had too much to drink slammed into him as it headed east at West 142nd Street, killing him.
Mr. Graham, 41, of Newburgh, N.Y., was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital. Batista Rosario, 30, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., remained at the scene, where he was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated.
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July 26, 2021 at 05:36AM
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5 Dead in Hamptons Crash That Is Blamed on Speeding - The New York Times
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