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.
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.
L
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.”
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.
“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.