Fatal New York car accident on Long Island

Two people are dead after a fatal crash in Brookhaven, according to local police. New York authorities on Long Island were called in response to a one-way driver on Sunrise Highway the night of Nov. 27. Police are still trying to determine the cause of the car accident, not to mention why the man was traveling the wrong way on the highway. No criminal charges are expected to be filed as both drivers involved perished in the crash. 

According to the police report, a 23-year-old man entered Sunrise Highway going in the wrong direction around 4 a.m. Witnesses called police to report him, but he managed to make it some seven miles traveling at a high rate of speed in the dark before the accident happened. A 49-year-old man was headed in the correct direction when the two vehicles collided.

The force of the impact killed both drivers immediately. A passenger in the wrong-way car was pulled from the wreckage by arriving medical personnel. That individual, the 25-year-old cousin of the driver, was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition. Police still have yet to put together why the man was traveling the wrong way on the highway, but their investigation is still underway. 

In a fatal car accident that kills the driver responsible, criminal charges are not filed posthumously. However, the family of the deceased man, as well as the injured passenger, are entitled under New York law to file wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits, respectively, against the driver’s estate. Any police evidence that supports driver error as part of the cause of the crash can be offered to support a civil suit of this type. 

Source: abc7ny.com, “2 dead, 1 hurt in crash involving wrong-way driver on Sunrise Highway in Brookhaven, Long Island“, Lucy Yang, Nov. 28, 2016