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Saved by Narcan in Springs

The driver of a Saab that crashed into trees along Old Stone Highway in Amagansett on Monday was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs.
The driver of a Saab that crashed into trees along Old Stone Highway in Amagansett on Monday was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs.
Morgan McGivern
By
T.E. McMorrow

A Springs man who crashed a 2007 Saab into the woods off Old Stone Highway in Amagansett on Monday morning had to be given the life-saving drug Narcan after East Hampton Town police found him unresponsive in the driver’s seat.

Kenneth J. Morsch, 27, was revived by the drug, an emergency nasal spray that is administered in cases of an apparent overdose involving an opioid drug, such as heroin.

Police said they found a hypodermic needle in the car. Mr. Morsch was taken to Southampton Hospital, accompanied by an officer who had charged him with driving while high on drugs. At the hospital, he consented to have his blood drawn. The sample will be tested by the Suffolk County Crime Lab.

Because of his condition, police said, he was released to the hospital staff, to be treated. He is scheduled to be arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court on Wednesday.

For Mr. Morsch, it was an almost exact repeat of an earlier incident. On March 17, 2011, Southampton Town police found him semiconscious behind the wheel of a car that had crashed into a tree off Great Hill Road in North Sea. He had a syringe with heroin in it on the passenger seat, police reported.

Besides the drug charge, he was charged with drunken driving, both misdemeanors, but was allowed to plead guilty in Southampton Town Justice Court to a reduced charge of driving under the influence of alcohol, a violation. 

According to court observers, it is unlikely that Mr. Morsch, a local musician, will be given the same opportunity on his second trip through the justice system.

While the frigid weather kept most people off the roads, another local artist was arrested this past week after a car crash also off Old Stone Highway in Amagansett.

Martin K. Megna of Sag Harbor, 59, lost control of his 2004 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck last Thursday night at a fork in the road with Town Lane. His truck sustained severe front-end damage, but Mr. Megna was apparently unhurt. Failing roadside sobriety tests and charged with driving while intoxicated, he took the breath test at town police headquarters in Wainscott, which, police said, produced a reading of 0.22, well over twice the legal level. He now faces a more serious misdemeanor charge of aggravated D.W.I.

Mr. Megna, who produces hand-blown glass, was released the next morning without bail, but with a future date on East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky’s criminal calendar.

 

 

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