Driver suffers medical emergency and crashes as car left hanging off bridge

Riverhead Town police responded to a pair of crashes within less than 1/2 hour Wednesday night, including a driver whose car crashed into a grassy median leaving the front end hanging over a bridge abutment.

Police received numerous calls about a wrong way driver on the Long Island Expressway at approximately 8:30 p.m. An elderly driver, who reportedly suffered a medical condition, was heading westbound on the LIE in the eastbound lanes and eventually crashed in Calverton.

The Riverhead Fire Department, Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps and Suffolk County Highway Patrol all responded to the scene. The first responders held down the back of the vehicle using their bodies to keep the car from falling to the roadway until ropes could be set up to winch the car back onto solid ground.

The driver was transported by RVAC ambulance to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead.

Police did not have any updates Thursday morning on the crash or the driver’s condition.

Police also responded to a rollover on Wading River Manor Road, just south of Grumman Boulevard just before 9 p.m. Wednesday. The driver struck a utility pole, causing a power outage in the area to the west of Wading River Manor Road and Route 25. The road was closed as PSEG responded.

Reporting by Thomas J. Lambui/LIHotShots