A head-on car crash on Saturday afternoon at the intersection of Montauk Highway and Cove Hollow Road involved a significant police, fire, and ambulance response, with two men taken to the hospital. Neither was seriously injured, East Hampton Village police reported.
The accident, which happened at around 3 p.m., was attributed to a distraction: Jose Umana Olivares of East Hampton told police he was looking at his dog when his 2019 Ford pickup truck drifted into the oncoming lane and struck a Ford limousine driven by Abdalali Jafine of Queens.
East Hampton Fire Department Chief Duane Forrester, who happened to be nearby when the call came through, was among the first to arrive.
The pickup truck’s engine was on fire when he got there, he said on Tuesday. He used his “water can” to put it out. “I called for a response for a vehicle fire, just in case it wasn’t completely out,” Chief Forrester said. “We doused it down again to make sure it was out completely. There was a large amount of radiator fluid, oil, and transmission fluid all over the ground, so we put down ‘Speedy Dry.’ “
Someone driving by, who told The Star she narrowly escaped the crash, said there was a third car involved, though the official accident report listed only two. On her way east, she said, she counted four westbound ambulances and six police cars racing to the scene.
The highway was closed in both directions from 3:09 p.m. to 5:23 p.m. Heavy-rescue equipment was there but was not needed, Chief Forrester said, but Mr. Olivares, 40, and one of Mr. Jafine’s two passengers, Andrew Blumenthal, 29, were taken by ambulance to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. A hospital spokesperson said Tuesday that both had been treated and released the same day.