Sunday, July 19, 2015

Taste of Death instead of Taste of Wine in LI: Truck Driver Was Drunk in Long Island T-Bone Collision with Limousine That Killed Four, Injured 2 Women Doing Wine Tasting


The crash happened when a limousine attempted to make a U-turn on Route 48 in Cutchogue, N.Y., on Saturday evening, the Southold Police Department said. Credit The Suffolk Times

CUTCHOGUE, N.Y. — 

They gathered for an annual rite of the summer wedding season in this rural corner of eastern Long Island: the chauffeured wine tasting with close friends. Eight women, all in their mid-20s, from Suffolk County, Scarsdale and Brooklyn, together in celebration on a Saturday afternoon.

Fresh from a vineyard visit around 5 p.m., the longtime friends piled into a black limousine rented for the occasion and rode a short distance before sloping into a U-turn at a crossing well-traveled by weekend revelers in the North Fork farmland.

It was there that a red pickup truck, hurtling along Route 48, collided with the broadside of the car, nearly ripping it in half. Four of the women died — three almost instantly from the impact, another a short time later a hospital — and two more were critically injured.

At once, families who hours before had been reveling in their daughters’ nascent lives as adults were plunged into mourning.

On Sunday the authorities said that alcohol was behind the devastating crash and charged the driver of the pickup, Steven Romeo, 55, of Southold, N.Y., with driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor charge that Suffolk County prosecutors said could be upgraded.
Flowers brought to the scene of the crash at the intersection of Route 48 and Depot Lane in Cutchogue, N.Y. Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times
Bail was set for Mr. Romeo, who was injured in the crash and arraigned from his hospital bed, at $500,000 cash or $1 million bond. Elizabeth Miller, an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, declined to say what Mr. Romeo’s blood-alcohol level was or where he had been before Saturday’s crash.

“Right now, we’re continuing the investigation and looking into upgrading the charges significantly,” Ms. Miller said. Mr. Romeo pleaded not guilty.
She said the driver of the limousine, Carlos Pino, 58, of Bethpage, N.Y., would not be charged. He was also injured in the crash.

The Long Island counties of Suffolk and Nassau, densely populated and crisscrossed by roads that teem with summertime visitors, regularly lead the state in alcohol-related crashes and fatalities. For police officers and prosecutors here, sunny weekends are often punctuated by grisly roadside scenes.

In 2013, the two counties accounted for the largest percentage — 7.3 percent and 14.2 percent — of alcohol-related fatalities on New York State roads, according to state data. In 2013, 52 people died in such crashes in Suffolk County and 27 died in Nassau County.

The crash on Saturday came less than a week after three members of a Queens family died in a fiery collision in Suffolk County. Prosecutors said a man, Oneil Sharpe Jr., 23, plowed into the family’s car on the Southern State Parkway while driving drunk and then fled the scene.

Two children, 4 and 8, along with their father, Ancio Ostane of St. Albans, Queens, were killed. Their mother survived. Mr. Sharpe was arrested several hours later.

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The limousine carrying the women was making a U-turn from the left-turn lane of eastbound Route 48, and was struck in the middle of the westbound lanes by the oncoming pickup truck. 

Outside the hospital on Sunday, Mr. Romeo’s lawyer, Daniel O’Brien, denied that his client was intoxicated and declined to comment on where Mr. Romeo had been before the collision, saying only, “That’s got to be developed.”
The limousine had been carrying a bride-to-be and seven of her friends, who were celebrating her upcoming wedding, Ms. Miller said.

The group had just left Vineyard 48, a winery on Route 48 in Cutchogue, heading a short distance east before trying to turn around at Depot Lane. The pickup truck, occupied only by Mr. Romeo, was heading west along Route 48.
The group was made up of six women from Suffolk County, one from Brooklyn and another from Scarsdale, N.Y., the authorities said. The bride-to-be was one of the four passengers who survived the crash, Ms. Miller said.

The four who died were identified as Brittney M. Schulman, 23, and Lauren Baruch, 24, of Smithtown; Stephanie Belli, 23, of Kings Park; and Amy R. Grabina, 23, of Commack. (The authorities originally rendered Ms. Schulman’s first name as Brittany.)

The authorities identified the other women as Joelle Dimonte, 25, of Elwood; Melissa Angela Crai, 23, of Scarsdale; Alicia Arundel, 24, of Setauket; and Olga Lipets, 24, of Brooklyn.

“Amy was a firecracker,” said Amanda Corrado, 22, who grew close to Ms. Grabina at Camp Lohikan in the Poconos. “She’d walk into a room and everyone would seem to know her somehow. She was just so outgoing and funny.”
Clockwise from top left, Stephanie Belli, Brittney Schulman, Amy Grabina and Lauren Baruch.
Three of the woman who died, Ms. Baruch, Ms. Schulman and Ms. Belli, had been friends since elementary school, their former teacher in Smithtown, Roni Cohen, said in a brief telephone interview. Ms. Schulman’s mother works at the school.

“I knew that Brittney was a bridesmaid because her mom would tell me,” she said. “We heard all the happy things that were going on.”

The road where the crash occurred is dotted with vineyards in a part of Long Island where tourists frequently travel in limousines as part of winery tours.

On Sunday, a pot of purple flowers, several plastic-wrapped bouquets and a crumpled length of yellow caution tape lay tangled in the parched grass at the intersection of Route 48 and Depot Lane. The crossing, governed by flashing yellow lights overhead that warn drivers to slow down and exercise caution, is busy with drivers turning in and out of Depot Lane and cars — and a few party buses and limousines — making U-turns on Route 48.

A few hundred feet from the intersection on Sunday, Vineyard 48 welcomed groups of revelers who had stopped to sip wine and relax under a large white tent nestled among neat rows of grapevines. Limousines and dark-windowed party buses filled the parking lot.

“Music Sat and Sun,” a sign outside read. “Strawberry wine is here.”

Edward Webb, 76, had been driving along Route 48 on Saturday when he came upon the crash and called 911 around 5:15 p.m. He said the driver, his face bloodied, was coherent and had lowered the back of his pickup and sat holding a water bottle.
Photo
Steve Romeo in 2010. Credit The Suffolk Times
“He looked like a person who had just gotten into an accident,” Mr. Webb said. “He didn’t look like a stumble-down drunk.” He later learned the driver, whom he did not recognize at the time, was Mr. Romeo, a boat repairman who has lived in the area for about 15 years.
“He’s a good man,” Mr. Webb said.

Mr. Romeo’s business, Romeo Dimon Marine Service, is currently the subject of a lawsuit filed by the family of an employee who died on the job in January 2014. The suit alleges that Mr. Romeo, while operating heavy equipment, struck the employee, Andrew J. Leone, killing him.

Three of the victims died at the scene and the fourth died at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, N.Y., Suffolk County authorities said. Two others were taken in critical condition to Stony Brook University Medical Center, the authorities said.

Arthur Belli said his granddaughter Stephanie “was a beautiful girl, just getting out of college and starting a career.” She enjoyed dancing and spending time with her family. She had two sisters.

After hearing news of Ms. Belli’s death, about 40 friends and relatives gathered at Mr. Belli’s home, “leaning on each other’s shoulders, just trying to console one another,” Mr. Belli said.

Her grandmother, Elizabeth Belli, said that the eight women were childhood friends.

“The winery tours are supposed to be a big thing to do nowadays,” she said through tears. “They took a limo to be safe, and they got killed.”

Vivian Yee reported from Cutchogue, and J. David Goodman from New York. Noah Remnick and Colleen Wright contributed reporting from New York. Jack Begg contributed research.