3 Hurt After Drunk Driver Flees Police, Crashes Into 4 Cars: Cops

HOLBROOK, NY – Three people, including a police officer, were taken to the hospital after a drunk driver fled police and crashed into four vehicles and then a tree Thursday evening, Suffolk Police said.

According to police, Fifth Precinct officers observed the driver of a 2006 Ford Explorer traveling at a high rate of speed and attempted to conduct a traffic stop on eastbound Veteran’s Memorial Highway, north of Broadway Avenue in Holbrook, at about 5:15 p.m.

The driver, later identified as 48-year-old Richard Carroll, sped away, and the officers did not pursue the vehicle, police said.

A short time later, Carroll attempted to make a right-hand turn onto Broadway Avenue when he struck a marked police car that was on northbound Broadway Avenue and stopped at a red light, police said.

The impact of the crash pushed the police car into a 2017 Nissan Altima that was also stopped at the red light, police said.

Carroll fled southbound on Broadway Avenue where he struck a Ford Taurus and a Mazda 3 near Sunrise Highway, police said. Carroll was apprehended on Sunrise Highway and Broadway Avenue after he struck a tree.

The police officer and the drivers of the Ford and Mazda were transported to local hospitals where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Carroll, of Ronkonkoma, was charged with felony DWI, fleeing a police officer, two counts of second-degree reckless endangerment, felony aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle, operating a motor vehicle without an interlock device and two counts of leaving the scene of an accident with injuries.

Carroll, who was also arrested on a DWI charge in 2014, was held overnight Fifth Precinct and was scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip Friday.