Head-On Crash in East Hampton Sends Two to the Hospital

Two people were taken to Southampton Hospital with minor injuries after their Lexus was hit head-on by a Whitmores Landscaping truck at the west end of East Hampton Village on Friday. 

The driver of the truck said it lost its brakes while heading west on Montauk Highway, according to East Hampton Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen, who responded to the accident along with other officers just before 11:50 a.m.

The truck was pulling a trailer with a small skid-steer on the back. The truck and trailer, estimated to weigh 12,000 pounds, skidded off the highway and onto the grass lawn on the east side of the entrance to the Creeks, an estate owned by Ron Perelman, causing damage to the lawn. The trailer came loose from the truck, though safety chains connecting them remained intact. 

The Lexus S.U.V., which also came to rest off the road, suffered major front-end damage, its windshiled was completely shattered, and airbags activated. The driver and passenger, a husband and wife, were conscious and alert afterward. The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association took them to Southampton Hospital. The three men in the landscaping truck were not injured.

"Luckily no one was really hurt," Chief Larsen said.

Traffic on Montauk Highway was temporarily diverted. The East Hampton Fire Department also responded, but its heavy rescue crew was not needed. The patients had gotten out of the S.U.V. on their own.