32 killed in crashes in one of Long Island's deadliest months. Here's the devastating impact.
Crismairy Rodriguez’s ringing phone startled her awake well after midnight.
Her school-age nieces, crying and scared, frantically said their parents hadn’t returned home from a date-night dinner. The police stood outside the girls’ Syosset home, knocking on the door. When Rodriguez asked to speak with the police, they said she needed to come over.
“It’s bad news,” Rodriguez said she thought to herself.
Once she raced there from her Brooklyn home, the police confirmed her instinct. Her sister and brother-in-law were killed when a drunken driver going 100 mph crossed into the opposite lane and struck their car. They were five miles from home.
Rodriguez fell to the ground, screaming, wailing, not wanting to believe what she heard. Then Rodriguez remembered her brother-in-law once asked her to care for their daughters “if anything happened.” The two children in the house now were dependent on her.
“Life was turned completely upside down,” she said.
In one of Long Island’s deadliest months on the roads in more than a decade, 32 people died in 26 crashes in August 2023, including Ismenia and Odalis Urena, Rodriguez’s sister and brother-in-law.
Long Island crashes have killed 2,100 people and seriously injured 16,000 over a decade. To better understand one of the deadliest months on Long Island's roads during that timeframe, Newsday embarked on a months long investigation of August 2023's fatal collisions, obtaining thousands of pages of police, court and state records, attending court hearings and meeting with people impacted.
More than a dozen people — victims’ family members, other drivers who witnessed the crashes and bystanders who ran to help — spoke to Newsday in vivid detail about the impact the deadly crashes have had on their lives. The month of tragedy inflicted trauma that surviving family members say they still struggle to process and express two years later.
Victims include children buckled into idling cars, a 22-year-old jogging with siblings and an 82-year-old riding a tricycle. The first weekend set a gruesome tone, with 11 people dying in seven crashes during a 58-hour stretch. Seven, including four young children, died in a 20-hour period.
The string of fatal crashes that month (see the crashes here) flummoxed first responders, police and prosecutors. The passage of two years has done little to alleviate their confusion over the rash of deaths. Katie Zizza, a 15-year veteran with the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, remembers thinking: “What is going on? Why is this happening?”
One Uniondale family sitting at a red light, out to celebrate a father’s new job, had four people killed — including children ages 6, 10 and 13 — when a driver high on cocaine and fentanyl was racing at 100 mph. Hours later, a drunken driver slammed his car into a West Hempstead woman’s car that was parked on the side of the road with its flashers on, killing her 6-year-old daughter.
And then there are the family members whose lives were changed in an instant. They say they still struggle with the randomness that determined their loved ones’ fates, grieve being robbed of a chance to say goodbye and find themselves adjusting to how their own lives have changed as a result.
Rodriguez, in a recent interview, described the impact of the crash that killed her sister and brother-in-law as akin to an earthquake, happening with no notice and upending everyone’s foothold on life. She quit her job and moved her husband and three children from Brooklyn into her sister’s home so her nieces could stay in the same schools. That meant her own kids, ages 16, 12 and 4, changed schools, made new friends and embraced a larger family.
None of that, of course, compared to her sister’s daughters coping with the loss of their parents. “One day they were here,” Rodriguez said, “the next day they’re gone.”
Three drunken drivers are serving years-long prison sentences for their roles in fatal crashes that month. Two people were convicted of leaving the scene. Two other hit-and-runs remain unsolved. And in the rest of the crashes, the police found no evidence of criminality, a determination frustrating some of the surviving family members. They blame erratic and dangerous driving patterns they say have become too common on Long Island roads.
“Every time I get into a car, anytime a member of my family is getting into a car, I'm worried,” said Zizza, the Nassau prosecutor. “Because not knowing who’s on the road with them, and knowing from my own experience that there are drunk and drugged and reckless drivers at all hours of the day on every roadway.”
Here’s a glimpse into how one of the worst months on Long Island roads unfolded.
Lindenhurst man killed riding electric scooter
Shawn Gavigan was on his electric scooter when fatally struck by a van in Lindenhurst. Credit: Tracy Gavigan and Newsday/Paul Mazza
The day is etched in Tracy Gavigan’s brain.
A neighbor vigorously knocked at his back door in mid-afternoon, saying Tracy’s brother, Shawn, had been in an accident down the street.
Tracy hurried to the busy intersection of Wellwood Avenue and Straight Path in Lindenhurst, arriving just as medics placed his brother in an ambulance.
The police told him a van hit Shawn as he crossed the street riding an electric scooter, which helped him get around after a stroke made walking laborious 15 years ago.
A doctor pronounced him dead at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip less than an hour after the crash, records show. He was 67.
Shawn’s death broke Tracy, coming months after their sister died from cancer.
“I cry every morning,” Tracy, 64, said, noting how he and his brother used to begin the day together over coffee.
Shawn moved in with Tracy’s family after his stroke. Tracy turned his basement into a bedroom with a bathroom and mini refrigerator. He also bought the scooter, which traveled at 5 mph.
Tracy filed a lawsuit against the driver of the van, Michael Chiofalo, of Copiague, in March. The lawsuit alleges Chiofalo drove “in a negligent, careless and reckless manner.”
Chiofalo, 58, of Copiague, did not return messages seeking comment.
In a statement to Suffolk police after the collision, Chiofalo said the traffic light turned green as he approached the intersection, allowing him to continue without reaching a full stop. Newsday obtained the statement from Suffolk police through a records request.
“I’m really careful when I drive because I know how people drive around here,” Chiofalo said. “So I began to go through the intersection with the flow of traffic. Next thing I know I had hit a person.”
Chiofalo also passed what police call “field sobriety tests,” which indicate whether a driver is impaired by a substance such as alcohol or drugs, police documents show.
Tracy said he felt bad suing Chiofalo. He said he trusts that police thoroughly investigated before determining there was no criminality.
Tracy wished he could sue Suffolk County, because of how dangerous he said that intersection is, but too much time has passed since his brother’s death to file suit against a municipality.
State accident records show the collision that killed Tracy’s brother was one of 18 at the intersection in 2023; the intersection averaged 16 crashes a year in the last decade, with about a third leading to injuries, the records show.
In a statement, Suffolk County spokesman Michael Martino said: “The prior administration performed an assessment at the site, and it was determined that all traffic measures are in compliance with traffic safety regulations.”
In the two years since Shawn’s death, Tracy has gone to the basement only once. He finds it too hard.
“It’s tragic, you know,” he said.
Hicksville bicyclist hit by car, dies
Jong Hwan Kim was on a midday bike ride when struck and killed by a car in Hicksville. Credit: Sungpil Kim and Newsday/Jim Staubitser
Jong Hwan Kim went for a midday ride on his bicycle.
The 77-year-old from South Korea moved to the United States a decade ago to help his son’s family of five navigate everyday life.
Kim bicycled everywhere for leisure and exercise and also by necessity. He didn’t drive a car.
So it wasn’t unusual for him to be gone for hours, especially during summer. His family became worried when he didn’t return home for dinner that day.
Unable to contact him, they resorted to Google. They found a report that detailed a collision involving an older Asian man on a bicycle hit by a car not far from their Hicksville home. A picture showed a sneaker on the ground that looked like one they recently bought him.
Fearing the worst, Kim’s son, Sungpil, went to the police station.
That’s how he found out his father died.
“The first emotion I felt was denial,” Sungpil, 51, said. “I couldn’t think that happened to us, to my father. Then I felt heartbroken.”
Heather, Sungpil’s wife, added, “And angry.”
The fatal collision occurred as Kim rode north on North Broadway in Hicksville, against traffic. A 2019 Toyota 4Runner, waiting to turn right onto North Broadway, struck Kim as it accelerated, then ran him over, state documents show.
Nassau police determined there was no criminality.
That surprised the Kim family.
“The U.S. laws are very lenient to drivers compared to South Korea,” said Sungpil, who was born there and came to the United States for college.
Sungpil filed a civil lawsuit against the driver, Mason Scharf, 22, of Syosset. Scharf declined to comment, his father said.
Sungpil can’t shake the irony that his father survived two wars — the Korean War as a child, and fighting for South Korea in Vietnam — and died on the road in the United States.
“He lost his life where it’s considered one of the safest countries,” he said.
'One of the most horrific car crashes this county has ever seen'
Clockwise from right, Chantel Solomon, Jeremiah, Hannah and Patrice Huntley. They were killed when a speeding driver rear-ended the family’s SUV in East Massapequa. Credit: Huntley family and Newsday/Paul Mazza
Michael McManus, alone in the car on his way home from work, sang loudly to music as he waited for a red light to turn green on Sunrise Highway north of the ShopRite shopping center in East Massapequa.
McManus didn’t notice the family in the car to his right, nor did he think about any of the other cars stopped around him. All that was on his mind was the dinner he was about to pick up at Whole Foods in the next shopping center on the left.
That’s why he picked the left lane.
Then suddenly an explosion, and his windows shattered. Glass flew everywhere.
“It felt like a bomb went off,” he said.
A man high on fentanyl and cocaine racing at more than 100 mph rammed his 2023 Hyundai Kona into the back of the car next to McManus, killing four of the people inside, including three children. The Hyundai ricocheted into the side of McManus’ car.
Michael McManus said images of children on stretchers were "burned" in his brain after the accident. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
It wasn’t until McManus managed to get out of his car that he realized the horror around him. One car flipped upside down. Two others crushed so much they were undistinguishable.
Amid the shock, McManus couldn’t stop touching different parts of his body, struggling to emotionally comprehend how he stood outside his car, so close to the apex of the tragedy.
“The only reason I am alive is because I chose the left lane,” McManus said, recounting the images of a scene that a Nassau prosecutor later described as “one of the most horrific car crashes this county has ever seen.”
Several first responders told McManus he was lucky to be alive.
“I don’t use the word luck because you can’t call it luck,” said McManus, 35, of Amityville. “There’s no world in which multiple children and multiple people die and that’s lucky, because they certainly weren’t lucky.”
“Burned in my brain,” he said, are images of children on stretchers accompanied by screams of family.
Two years later, thoughts of imminent doom still haunt McManus when he’s waiting for a red light to turn green. “To this day, I'm sitting at an intersection and I almost can close my eyes and feel an impending impact, like an explosion, like I’m anticipating a bomb going off,” he said.
The driver of the Hyundai, Michael DeAngelo, is serving a 7-to-21-year sentence after pleading guilty last year to aggravated vehicular homicide, four counts of second-degree manslaughter, aggravated vehicular assault, second- and third-degree assault and driving while impaired on drugs.
6-year-old dies in idling car
Katerine Vanegas-Hernandez was killed after the car she was in was struck by a drunken driver in West Hempstead. Credit: Newsday/Debbie Egan-Chin and Lou Minutoli
Lorena Hernandez took her children for a drive in the middle of the night to escape a summer night’s heat. They pulled over on Hempstead Turnpike in West Hempstead to inspect a carpet left on the sidewalk. The flashers on their silver Toyota blinked as Hernandez stood outside the car.
That’s when a Nissan Pathfinder, driven by a drunken driver speeding at what a witness estimated at 60 mph, crashed into the Toyota, killing Hernandez’s 6-year-old daughter, Katerine Vanegas-Hernandez — two days before her 7th birthday. Her son, then 5, suffered a fractured spine.
Lorena Hernandez said her son doesn't ask when his sister will be home as often. Credit: Newsday/Debbie Egan-Chin
“At the moment, psychologically, we’re not well, to say the least,” Hernandez told Newsday in a recent interview in Spanish. “But we’re doing everything we can to recover from that. And to move forward.”
She said her son is no longer asking when his sister is coming home as often. He is undergoing physical and emotional therapy, which has helped, she said.
“He’s kind of getting used to the idea that she is not coming back,” she said.
Zizza, of the Nassau vehicular crimes bureau, told Newsday the deaths of children that month hit her particularly hard, given that she has two of her own.
“It's just one of those shocking moments when you hear that and you’re in the midst of putting your own 6-year-old to bed,” she said. “It's hard.”
The drunken driver, Jorge Bonilla Gutierrez, is serving a 6-to-12-year sentence in prison after pleading guilty last year to second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault, two counts of third-degree assault and driving while intoxicated.
Woman dies in Ronkonkoma hit-and-run
Lydia Ciminelli was killed by a hit-and-run driver while heading to an exercise class in Ronkonkoma. Credit: Ciminelli family and Newsday/James Carbone
Larry Masi, 76, sipped coffee and read the newspaper at his dining room table at his Ronkonkoma condominium, like any other morning.
The phone rang and the caller — someone from Stony Brook University Hospital — said, “I regret to inform you that Lydia Ciminelli died in an accident.”
Masi struggled to process the message. He thought about Ciminelli, his sister, sitting on his living room couch the night before, laughing and watching television. That was a typical night for the siblings, who lived in the same complex.
Sadness overwhelmed him. How could this be?
Seeking answers, Masi went to Rosevale Avenue south of Motor Parkway in Ronkonkoma, where the collision occurred. There, Suffolk police detectives told him she had been crossing the street, headed to an exercise class, and a driver hit her and left the scene. She was 72.
Larry Masi said he is confounded by the loss of his sister. Credit: Newsday/Drew Singh
Hearing she died in a hit-and-run struck a chord.
“My sadness turned to anger,” Masi said.
Prosecutors charged Michelle Karp, then 28, three months later with leaving the scene and replacing her broken windshield to cover up the crash. She pleaded guilty in November, and a judge sentenced her to 6 months in jail followed by 5 years of probation.
When Masi saw Karp for the first time in court at her sentencing in March, she was dressed in a brown jogging suit, white socks and Crocs, with her brown hair in two braids that made her appear younger than her 30 years. By then, Masi’s anger had dissipated. He felt bad for her.
“I could see she looked scared,” he said.
Once the proceedings began, acting Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski gave Masi a chance to address Karp. Leaning on a podium for balance, Masi looked at Karp and recounted how that morning unfolded for him. He explained his anger when he learned she left the scene.
“I wish you would have stopped and it would have just been an accident,” he said.
Then Masi said he did not harbor any ill feelings toward her.
“I don’t wish you any bad luck,” he said. “Go on with your life and take care of your family.”
Given an opportunity to respond by the judge, Karp apologized to Masi — who still stood behind the podium — and she promised “to do the best I can to make amends.”
In a recent interview, Masi said people have encouraged him to sue her to either get money or at least “to make it miserable for her.” He saw no value in that.
“I’d rather have my sister back, talking nonstop,” he said.
Almost every morning she used to walk in front of his apartment and yell, “Brother Larry, I’m going to the store,” to see if he needed anything. These days, he looks out the window and still sees her walking by.
Not much confounds him. This does.
“Maybe it’s because of how it happened,” he said, and how he didn’t get a chance to say good-bye.
As they watched television the night before the accident, she told him of her plans to take the bus to the exercise class the next morning. He told her to take his car instead of the bus.
Asked what he would say to her if he had one more opportunity, he said: “I love you” and “why didn’t you take the car?”
Their last night together, she also brought cookies to his apartment. After she died, he wrapped the three remaining ones in tin foil and put them in the freezer.
They’re still there today.
Drunken driver kills Syosset parents headed home from date night
Ismenia and Odalis Urena were killed when a drunken driver going 100 mph struck their car in Laurel Hollow. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp and Nassau County District Attorney's Office
Crismairy Rodriguez, summoned to her sister’s Syosset home by her frantic nieces because police were outside, dropped to the ground when told the news.
A drunken driver, speeding at 100 mph, caused a collision that killed her sister and her brother-in-law.
Odalis and Ismenia Urena were 37.
Rodriguez gathered the strength to get up and care for her nieces — then ages 14 and 8 — by recalling encouragement her sister offered at low moments: “You need to pick yourself up, fix your crown, put your best lipstick on, and keep going.”
Those words motivated Rodriguez as she assimilated the girls into her family of five.
“People need to hear how hard it is to pick up the pieces,” Rodriguez said. “Nobody knows the aftermath. It feels like two people were just erased out of this planet, out of the world, like one moment they were here, and in a split second they were gone.”
Immediately after the deaths, Rodriguez moved her nieces into her family’s Brooklyn apartment. The home proved too small and the schedule too hectic. Rodriguez awoke in the 4 o’clock hour to help everyone get ready and drive her nieces to their Long Island schools.
Crismairy Rodriguez has been taking care of her sister and brother-in-law's children since their death. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
After several weeks there, they relocated the new family of seven to her sister and brother-in-law’s Syosset home, which had just been built and had been vacant since their deaths.
“I was supposed to be the aunt that spoiled them and returned them back,” Rodriguez said inside a Nassau courtroom last August when a judge sentenced the driver, Sotirios Spanos, to a 7-to-21-year prison sentence. “Now I am the parent that needs to find a balance between spoiling them and not spoiling them too much. It’s not fair.”
Today, two years after the crash, Rodriguez said she’s still “in survival mode.”
On top of the daily homework and after-school activities is a constant flow of court machinations dealing with administering Urena’s will and securing proper guardianship of the children.
What motivates Rodriguez today is believing she will be reunited with her sister and brother-in-law and hear them say, “You did what you had to do.”
“That's what gets me up in the morning, because it’s hard,” she said. “Sometimes I don’t want to get up. I just want to grieve.”
Driver killed in two-car crash in Plainview
Christopher Biviano was turning out of a parking lot in Plainview when killed by a driver allegedly going 74 mph. The speed limit was 40 mph. Credit: Anthony Biviano and Newsday/James Carbone
“Why are you lying to me?” That’s what Anthony Biviano said when told his son, Christopher, was killed in a car crash.
“I’ll never forget those words,” said Anthony, 76, of Calverton.
Even though two years have passed, the shock is still present.
“Worst day of my life,” he said.
State accident records show Christopher, 44, was making a left turn out of a parking lot on Manetto Hill Road in Plainview at 11:34 a.m. when his GMC was hit on the driver's side by a Jeep Grand Cherokee.
A civil lawsuit brought by Biviano alleges that the other driver, Tyler Lima, 25, of Levittown, was driving 74 mph a second before the collision. The speed limit is 40 mph.
That information comes from the vehicle’s “crash data retrieval” obtained by Nassau police during its investigation, Biviano’s attorney, Daniel Connors, said in an email.
Lima declined to comment, attorney Jarad Siegel said.
Nassau police determined there was no criminality. That infuriated Biviano.
Fatal crashes involving a speeding driver are challenging to prosecute without additional factors such as traffic violations, bad weather, poor visibility or extenuating traffic conditions, Zizza said.
“The issue is that the appellate courts have vacated convictions for manslaughter even where drivers are going double the speed limit,” she said. “The appellate courts are not simply looking at the speed itself, they are looking at all the surrounding circumstances and all known factors to determine if speeding transformed into dangerous speeding.”
That doesn’t make grieving any easier for Anthony, who thinks about his son every day.
Therapy has helped him process Christopher’s sudden death.
“I have his pictures all through my house, and every time I go by, I look at him and I smile,” he said. “And I believe he’s with me.”
Biviano’s wife recently told him Christopher spoke to her during the middle of the night when she was in a dreamlike state.
Biviano knows how outlandish that sounds. But two years after his son died, he misses him so much that he’s willing to blur reality this one time.
“I want,” he said, “to believe it.”
Newsday's Arielle Martinez and Belisa Morillo contributed to this story.
Jim Baumbach is an award-winning investigative reporter at Newsday, where he has worked since 1998. He spent two decades in the sports department, where he covered every professional team and league, including events such as the Super Bowl and World Series.
Park named for Omer Neutra ... Unseen cesspool dangers ... Out East: Hank's Pumpkintown ... Get the latest news and more great videos at NewsdayTV
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