Close call on Long Island when car slams into house containing dental office

MILLER PLACE (WABC) -- It was a close call on Long Island Thursday when a driver went out of control and crashed his car into a house which doubles as a dentist's office.

Police say the 59-year-old Manorville man swerved to avoid something in the roadway and slammed into the house on North Country Road in Miller Place at approximately 5 p.m.

The 2011 Subaru four-door sedan landed partially inside the dental office at 242 North Country Road.

A dentist, his three staff members and a patient were inside the house. He says they were just feet away from being killed.

"There's the crack, if it wasn't for the beam, the X-ray unit would have taken my head off," said dentist Rick Gambino.

The office is inside his family's home. "I thought lightning hit the building at first, but then pieces started flying through the door and there was screaming outside," said Gambino.

By sheer luck, no one was in the waiting room. "Five minutes earlier, a lot of people would have been dead," said Gambino.

Gambino, his wife and daughters are staying with family members for now. He's not sure how long it will take to repair the damage. "We got lucky," he said. "I'm not a churchgoing person but I may start to be."

Gambino said the intersection has been a problem for years.

The house was occupied but there was no one inside the room the car crashed into, police said.

No one inside the home was injured. The driver was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The Brookhaven Building Inspector is investigating.