Police

Driver in head-on collision arrested for DWI, drug charges

PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO

Update: The driver of the Pontiac, Tommy Miles, 44, of Riverhead, was arrested after he was released from Peconic Bay Medical Center Monday night and charged with driving while intoxicated and unlawful possession of marijuana, Riverhead Town police said. He was taken to police headquarters, processed, and held for morning arraignment.

Original story: A man was hospitalized with chest pains after swerving into oncoming traffic on Roanoke Avenue in Riverhead and striking a truck head-on Monday night, crumpling the front end of his vehicle, police said.

The accident occurred about 7:45 p.m., when a man driving a Pontiac south on Roanoke Avenue near the Riverhead Fire Department station drove into the opposite lane to get around a vehicle in front of him, police said.

The Pontiac collided with the front end of a Ford pickup truck headed in the opposite direction, police and witnesses said.

The driver of the Ford truck was not hurt, while the man driving the Pontiac was hospitalized for chest pains likely caused by the air bag, but the injuries were not expected to be serious, police said.

Riverhead Fire Department chiefs were called to the scene to close off the road and clean up fluids that had spilled onto the roadways from both cars.

Roanoke Avenue was briefly closed as tow trucks removed the vehicles from the scene.

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