By Laura Rivera
Newsday
Copyright 2007 Newsday, Inc.
SUFFOLD, New York — Three people were injured in a crash involving a Suffolk County emergency van in Holbrook, police said yesterday.
Officer James Bowen was northbound on Patchogue-Holbrook Road around 10:10 p.m. Tuesday when a Chevrolet sedan ran a red light at Furrows Road and struck the emergency van, police said.
But Michael Parlapiano-Chase, the car driver, said he had a green arrow when he attempted to turn left onto Furrows Road, and it was the van that barreled into his vehicle. “I know for a fact I had a green light,” Parlapiano-Chase, 18, said.
After the crash, Bowen struck a utility pole and a tree, police said.
Parlapiano-Chase, of Sag Harbor, and Jennifer Silvestri, 16, his passenger, were extricated from the vehicle with rescue equipment and taken by ambulance to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital, Parlapiano-Chase said. Both were treated yesterday and released.
Bowen was taken to Stony Brook University Medical Center, treated for a head wound and released, police said.
Parlapiano-Chase, who graduated from Pierson High School this spring, submitted to a Breathalyzer test at the hospital, which police said turned out negative. He is nursing cuts and bruises on his left shoulder and right hip, and bears the mark of the seat belt across his chest, he said.
“Not only did the van not slow down, it didn’t even try to swerve,” he said.
Police said the investigation is continuing.