Dashcam video captures alleged drunk driver smashing into family's car twice on Long Island

Saturday, October 10, 2015
Alleged drunk driver captured slamming into family's car twice on Long Island
Alleged drunk driver captured slamming into family's car twice on Long IslandAJ Ross has the story.

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. (WABC) -- A woman accused of DWI hit a car with a mother and two young children inside not once, but twice on Long Island.

The dash cam video begins from the young family's car as they approached a stoplight Thursday around 4:30 p.m. at Ocean and Woodside avenues in Patchogue. Out of nowhere, a Honda SUV traveling westbound makes a wild right turn in the middle of the busy intersection and violently strikes them head on.

"I thought we were going to die," the mother said.

Police have identified the driver of that vehicle as 53-year-old Linda Spina of Selden. Spina seems to ignore the pleas of two Good Samaritans, including an EMT, to shut her car off.

Instead, she backs into oncoming traffic and then seconds later hits the gas again nearly running over a woman before colliding head-on with young mom and her two daughters for a second time. "I was really scared when she first hit us, me and my little sister were crying. When she hit us a second time we were crying so hard that we were screaming as well," the little girl said.

Helplessly on the phone was the girls' father who quickly rushed to the scene to see if his family was OK. "Suddenly, I hear screams of my kids, my wife, and then silence. I thought that I lost my family," said Andrey Krasnov, the husband and father of the victims

Spina was transported to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital and later arrested and charged with DWI. "We're very thankful that everyone is safe," the mother said.

"It's very good to have them back and safe after what happened," Krasnov said.

Spina was arraigned Friday at First District Court in Central Islip.

Copyright © 2024 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.