Jie Cao, of Nesconset, killed in crash while riding motorized scooter, police say

A 78-year-old woman was struck and killed Monday evening in Nesconset while seated in a motorized scooter she was riding, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

The woman, later identified as Jie Cao, of Nesconset, had been traveling north around 6:35 p.m. on Lake Avenue South "against the red traffic light" at the intersection with Smithtown Boulevard when she was struck by the driver of a 2008 Toyota Sienna traveling west on the boulevard "approaching the intersection with a green traffic light," the department wrote in a news release.

Cao was riding a Vevor scooter.

In an email, the press office wrote: "The driver was in the westbound lane traveling westbound. The woman on the scooter was on the east side of the intersection, having just crossed through eastbound traffic and past the median into the westbound traffic as she was traveling northbound when she was struck."

Cao was pronounced dead at Stony Brook University Hospital, where she had been brought after the crash, the release said; the driver, a 68-year-old East Northport man, was uninjured.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.