Police ID Patchogue Driver Killed In High Speed Crash

PATCHOGUE, NY — A Patchogue man was killed when his car crashed into a tree off the William Floyd Parkway in Shirley early Monday, police said.

Suffolk County Police Seventh Squad detectives are investigating the one car crash took place on William Floyd Parkway at 2:15 a.m., police said. Ali Gaith, 31, was driving a 2006 BMW sedan south at a high rate of speed on William Floyd Parkway when he apparently lost control of his vehicle; the BMW struck a utility pole, police said.

According to a Suffolk County Police spokesperson, at 2:12 a.m., a Seventh Precinct officer driving a marked patrol car observed a black BMW pass through a red traffic light at Montauk Highway and William Floyd Parkway.

The BMW headed northbound on William Floyd Parkway at a high rate of speed, police said. The officer was unable to catch up to the vehicle and lost sight of it, police said.

Minutes later, a different Seventh Precinct officer driving a marked patrol car was heading north on William Floyd Parkway near the Long Island Expressway when he saw a black BMW traveling south in the northbound lanes, police said.

The officer, suspecting that the driver was intoxicated, turned his vehicle around and headed south in the southbound lane, police said.

As the officer attempted to catch up to the BMW, he saw that the vehicle was now traveling south in the southbound lanes at a high rate of speed, police said.

Moments later, at approximately 2:16 am, the officer discovered that the BMW had crashed into the utility pole.

The black BMW that crashed was the same vehicle that the original officer saw passing through the red light several minutes earlier, police said.

Gaith was pronounced at the scene by a physician assistant from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner, police said.

The vehicle was impounded for a safety check, police said.

The investigation is continuing, police said.

Residents said the crash caused major problems in the community Monday morning, with "both sides of the railway shut down, meaning there is pretty much no way out of this community," one woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said. "It shows what everyone has been saying — there needs to be an overpass cause. In a real emergency, no one can get out." The woman said her child was still on the school bus at 8:20 a.m.; she got on at 7:30 a... It took another man an hour to get out of the area and head to work, with traffic backed up on Smith Road and on connecting side roads.

"It's bad," the resident said.

Photo courtesy Fully Involved Media Group / Brian LaMonica Jr.