Update: ‘Drunk driver’ injured in Riverhead crash out of hospital
Update: The Hauppauge man arrested for drunk driving after he was seriously injured in a car accident in Riverhead Monday afternoon has been released from the hospital, a hospital spokesman said.
Robert McCoy, 50, was discharged from Stony Brook University Medical Center, the spokesperson said Tuesday. Arraignment information for Mr. McCoy’s driving while intoxicated charge was not available.
Original story: A Hauppauge man who was allegedly driving drunk was hospitalized Monday after his sedan collided with a pickup truck carrying boxes of planting materials through a four-way intersection in Riverhead, officials said.
The impact sent both vehicles careening through a fence and into a field.
Robert McCoy, 50, of Hauppauge was driving a tan 2008 Honda Accord heading west on Reeves Avenue about 3 p.m. when a white 2008 Dodge Ram 5500, which was traveling north on Horton Avenue, t-boned the sedan’s side, police said.
The two vehicles then swerved off the road and into the field. The truck, which had a Long Island Cauliflower Association label on its side, sent cardboard boxes spilling onto the grass and road.
Riverhead firefighters, ambulance volunteers, and town fire marshals responded to the crash site, where fire crews cut off the sedan’s door to free Mr. McCoy, fire officials said.
He was arrested at the scene for driving while intoxicated and taken via Suffolk County police helicopter to Stony Brook University Medical Center for treatment of “serious injuries,” Riverhead Town police said Tuesday night.
The driver of the pickup truck, Samuel McCoy, 60, of Riverhead, was taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center where he was treated and released. The two men are not related, police said.
Officials said there were no other passengers in either car.
Right after the crash, police and fire crews weren’t sure whether the cardboard boxes contained hazardous materials, such as fertilizer. It was later determined a green substance that had spilled was a harmless calcium additive for planting.
Police closed Horton Avenue near the Reeves Avenue intersection while the scene was investigated and the vehicles were cleared away.
Police did not say who was at fault in the crash and have asked anyone who might have additional information about the accident to call detectives at 722-4500, ext. 632.
