Two Trees, One Utility Pole

East Hampton Town police made six arrests on drunken driving charges in the past week, three of which involved crashes and almost all of which involved elevated levels of intoxication.

 In the most dramatic accident, a car shattered into three crumpled piles of twisted metal when it struck a tree at 5:43 p.m. on Sunday, a few hours after the Montauk St. Patrick’s Day parade had ended.

Alan R. Marcelino of Springs, 23, who was driving a 1999 Acura, had been headed west down the steep hill past the Hither Hills overlook when, according to witnesses, he began passing cars on the left. While it is legal to do so at the top of the hill, the broken yellow line becomes a double line farther west, where westbound cars enter a blind curve.

It was well past that point that Mr. Marcelino tried to illegally pass another westbound vehicle 100 yards east of the merge between Montauk Highway and Old Montauk Highway, according to an occupant of an oncoming car, Samantha Rodriguez. She said the Acura was speeding and just missed colliding with her car. It then skidded sideways off the road, hit the wet shoulder, and slammed sideways into a tree. Mr. Marcelino, the sole occupant of the Acura, was ejected, and debris scattered down the road to the south, toward Old Montauk Highway.

A police officer said that when he reached Mr. Marcelino, he smelled strongly of alcohol and admitted he had been drinking before the accident. Charged with driving while intoxicated, he complained of back pain and was flown by helicopter to the Stony Brook University Hospital trauma center. He will be arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court at a future date. Eddie Prado of Marshall and Sons, who has operated a flatbed tow truck for over 40 years and was called to remove the vehicle, described the vehicle as one of the worst wrecks he had ever seen. He wondered how anyone could have survived such a crash.

Another tree was sideswiped on Sunday on Daniel’s Hole Road near Montauk Highway in Wainscott at around 11 a.m. It was the second time in less than four years, police said, that Kiera Anne Egan, 29, of Sagaponack and the 2008 Pontiac she was driving were in an accident.

In both incidents, Ms. Egan’s breath test at headquarters produced a high reading, triggering a raised charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated. While a reading of .08 of 1 percent defines intoxication, it takes a .18 or higher level to trigger the aggravated charge. “I haven’t had any alcohol since 8 a.m.,” Ms. Egan allegedly told the arresting officer.

Ms. Egan had been convicted of D.W.I. as a felony in 2013, after having been convicted of D.W.I. as a misdemeanor in 2010. In addition to the new felony D.W.I. charge, she is facing a felony charge of driving without a license.

It is routine for defendants arrested around noon to be held overnight and arraigned the following morning. However, in this case, police asked East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky for an arraignment the same day, which he granted, at about 6 p.m. He set bail at $15,000.

Officers from the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department escorted Ms. Egan to Stony Brook University Hospital for observation. She was eventually transferred to the county jail in Riverside, where she remained as of yesterday afternoon.

Another accident that included a crash and led to a D.W. I. arrest was that of Donald Goodale, who was driving a 2014 Jeep Wrangler on Old Northwest Road in East Hampton, near his residence, when he went off the road and hit a utility pole on Thursday. He was charged with misdemeanor drunken driving, after his breath test produced an alleged reading of .13. A longtime resident of the area, he was released without bail.

A third Sunday arrest was that of a Sag Harbor woman, Ashley E. Nill. Ms. Nill, who is 21, had a .21 reading on her breath test, police reported, leading to a misdemeanor charge of aggravated D.W.I. She was stopped while headed west in a 2004 B.M.W. on Montauk Highway on Napeague Sunday night for allegedly swerving across lane lines. She was released without bail the next morning by Justice Tekulsky, who also cited her longtime ties to the community.

Another woman arrested and charged with aggravated drunken driving as a misdemeanor was Lisa D. Narizzano, 50, of Springs. She was driving a 2005 Ford Explorer on Friday night when she was pulled over on Old Stone Highway in Amagansett for an alleged traffic infraction. She also was charged with an additional misdemeanor, possession of cannabis in a concentrated form. She, too, was released without bail the next morning because she has ties to the community, and she has a future on Justice Tekulsky’s criminal calendar.

The final arrest on a D.W.I. charge this week was that of Eddy Fernando Sangurima-Morocho, 21, of Southampton, who was pulled over on Montauk Highway in Wainscott early Friday morning. His reported breath test reading of .08 was the lowest reported this week, but still high enough to trigger the charge. He was also charged with driving without a license. Bail was set at $500 and posted later that day.