Car crashes into house in West Babylon, Long Island; driver flees scene

Monday, January 18, 2016
Third car to crash into Long Island home in five months
N.J. Burkett is in West Babylon with the details

WEST BABYLON, Long Island (WABC) -- Police say a driver fled the scene after a car struck a house on Long Island Monday morning.

The crash happened at about 8 a.m. on Phoenix Road in West Babylon.

A driver heading eastbound on Gordon Avenue apparently crossed over Little East Neck Road and went through a fence and straight into the back of a house at 2 Phoenix Road.

There was one person in the home at the time of the crash. She was on the second floor and was not injured. The tenants on the ground floor were not home.

"They are coming up this street at 55 miles per hour," a neighbor said.

Neighbors are angry and not the least bit surprised.

The driver fled the scene on foot.

Police believe he lost control after speeding into an intersection with a thin coating of black ice.

"This is a 30 mph, and you can see them all the time they're flying up and down here, and they fly up and down Gordon Avenue because they are coming off of the Southern State," a neighbor said.

Residents are furious because it's happened before.

A car crashed into the home across the street back in November.

Although nobody was injured, less than three months earlier, a car loaded with teenagers crashed into the house next door.

One of the passengers, a 17-year-old girl, did not survive.

"The little girl was screaming, oh my God, 'Help me, please help me, somebody help me,' and they couldn't. My husband and a couple of other guys couldn't get her out of the car, it was demolished," said Sondra Cochran, a neighbor.

After three crashes in less than five months, neighbors are demanding changes on Little East Neck Road.

It's a busy straightaway where the 30 mph speed limit seems to be regarded as a practical joke.

"We've been trying to get a light here for over 20 years," Cochran said. "This is ridiculous, you have one, two, three, and it's obvious it's something to do with the speed coming across this bridge!"