Driver swerves across traffic, flips SUV in Laurel
A 23-year-old Aquebogue woman was hospitalized Monday evening after she swerved across rush-hour traffic and struck a tree, flipping her SUV on Main Road in Laurel.
Heiddy Alvarado was driving a black, all-wheel drive Chevrolet Equinox SUV eastbound on Main Road near Laurel Lake Park about 5:15 p.m. when she struck a mailbox, said Southold police Sgt. Scott Latham.
She then crossed over oncoming traffic, dodged between a tree and the house at 5075 Main Road, drove over a bush and struck a tree near the entrance to Laurel Lake Park, flipping the vehicle and tearing off the front bumper.
Sgt. Latham said had Ms. Alvarado swerved left instead of right, she would have driven onto a baseball field where a Little League team was practicing.
“With a day like today, when everyone could haven been out walking, it could have been much worse,” he said.
Mattituck Rescue and Fire crews responded to the accident and treated the woman at the scene. She was seen in a neck brace and was taken by ambulance to Peconic Bay Medical Center as a precaution, authorities said.
There were no other passengers in the car, police said.
Ms. Alvarado later told police that “she was tired and didn’t know what happened,” according to a police statement.
