Woman Killed In Head-On Crash On Napeague, Aquebogue man charged with drunken driving

One woman died, two people were airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, and two were taken to Southampton Hospital after a head-on collision between two cars on Napeague Sunday afternoon that paralyzed traffic for hours.

The driver of a Ford sport utility vehicle was headed west on Montauk Highway at about 4 p.m. when he crossed into the eastbound lane and hit a Subaru head-on, according to East Hampton Town police.

Keith Kalmus of Aquebogue, the westbound driver, will be arraigned on a charge of driving while intoxicated in East Hampton Town Justice Court tomorrow. He is a former Queens prosecutor, the son of a retired Quogue police chief, and a cousin of Daniel Pelosi, who was convicted in December of murdering Theodore Ammon of East Hampton.

The accident took place half a mile west of the intersection of Montauk Highway and Old Montauk Highway and brought traffic to a standstill for almost four hours.

Eva Bertuccioli-Krapfenbauer of Belgium, 65, who was a passenger in the Subaru, was pronounced dead at Southampton Hospital that afternoon.

Mr. Kalmus, 39, who was alone in his S.U.V., was treated at Southampton Hospital and released later that day with a ticket to appear in court. Town Police Chief Todd Sarris said that a blood test, which Mr. Kalmus initially refused to submit to, showed alcohol levels above the legal limit for driving.

The case has been turned over to the Suffolk County Major Crimes Bureau, which may file additional charges. Mr. Kalmus's lawyer, Edward Burke Jr., acknowledged the possibility. Messages left at Mr. Kalmus's law office in Mattituck were not returned.

The driver of the Subaru, Claudio Bertuccioli of Brooklyn, was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he remained yesterday.

One of his passengers, Margot Krapfenbauer of Austria, was in critical condition in the surgical intensive care unit at Stony Brook University Hospital yesterday, where she had been flown after the accident.

Another passenger, Rebecca McMillan of Brooklyn, who is Mr. Bertuccioli's wife, is in "good condition" at South-ampton Hospital, according to hospital staff. She was sitting in the front seat next to her husband.

Reached in his hospital room on Tuesday, Mr. Bertuccioli said that Ms. Bertuccioli-Krapfenbaur was his mother and Ms. Krapfenbaur, his aunt. The two women were sitting in the back seat.

He would not answer any other questions, saying that he had been instructed not to talk to the press about the accident.

According to Chief Sarris, the four tourists had stopped at the Lobster Roll on Napeague for lunch and were proceeding east to visit Montauk.

Emergency workers from the Amagansett Fire Department and the Montauk Fire Department responded to the accident. All four doors of the Subaru, as well as its roof, had to be cut off with a "jaws of life" tool to free the occupants. Mr. Kalmus's S.U.V. flipped on its side, but he was able to extricate himself before police arrived.

Traffic was backed up in both directions for over three hours while emergency workers, police, and investigators roped off what they called the crime scene. All cars were prevented from getting through, leaving Montauk under a virtual lockdown, with no access in or out.

Chief Sarris said the accident had to be reconstructed for analysis. Five police officers and a team of detectives investigated the site.

Because it was late on a Sunday afternoon, there were lines of cars bearing visitors trying to head back west, on both Montauk Highway and Old Montauk Highway, who had to be sent back to Montauk.

Traffic was at a standstill in front of Cyril's Fish House from 4 p.m. until perhaps three and a half hours after the accident, when the police started to let some cars through. "It was a disaster. I've never seen anything like it," said the restaurant's owner, Cyril Fitzsimmons.

Among the vehicles immobilized by the accident was a Hampton Jitney whose 13 passengers were extremely patient, according to Jennifer Friebely, a Jitney spokeswoman.

"I expected a bunch of complaints but I didn't get one. It restores my faith in human nature," Ms. Friebely said.

"It was an extremely difficult location. We couldn't feed them anywhere, although, from what I hear, some went on the beach" in four-wheel-drive vehicles, Chief Sarris said. Some who did that were turned back by the tide.

Traffic was at first routed through one lane. It was about 9 p.m. when vehicles were allowed on both lanes of Montauk Highway. Other than the fact that westbound cars had been backed up for miles, the chief said, there were no major problems.

With Reporting by Janis Hewitt