Two survive crash as car plunges into the water off Harbor Isle

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The Island Park Fire Department and Nassau County police responded with ambulances and a helicopter after a car launched into the water off Warwick Road, just west of Island Parkway West in Island Park, last Saturday night.

According to police, officers responding to a call at 9:55 p.m. determined that a 2002 Audi sedan, driven by a 24-year-old man, had struck a utility pole, bringing wires down on the roadway, then left the road, drove through shrubbery and a fence between two homes and landed in Broad Channel, 50 feet offshore from the bulkhead behind the houses.

“It happened across the street from me,” said Eddie Leach, who lives on Warwick Road. “It sounded like an airplane crashed. … That car had to be doing 80 or 100 miles an hour. … Two kids were in the car. One got out and stood on the hood.”

NCPD officer Ahmad Kessba crawled out to the submerging vehicle on a ladder held by three other officers, and pulled the 28-year-old driver onto the ladder. While other officers pulled the driver back to land, Kessba and an Island Park firefighter stayed on top of the sinking vehicle and kept the passenger’s head above water.

The IPFD’s second assistant chief, Mike Whelan, put out a call for mutual aid, and the Inwood F.D.’s assistant chief, Anthony Rivelli Jr., who happened to be nearby, heard the call.

“I’m a diver, and I heard that a person was trapped in the water,” recounted Rivelli, who is trained in water rescue. “I keep my scuba gear in my fire chief’s car … With the help of the firemen and policemen, I was able to don my dry suit, gloves, mask and fins. I was given a lifeline and entered the water from the dock. I found one man trapped under the dashboard inside the car, in a lot of pain, trying to get free. The water was already up to the car’s mirrors. I was able to pop out the door from under water, and pulled him out. I swam him to shore. He had an obvious fractured arm. With the help of the other firemen and police, we got him on a backboard.”

A police helicopter landed behind Francis X. Hegarty School and transported the passenger to a local hospital. He suffered multiple leg fractures in addition to a shoulder injury, according to Island Park Fire Chief James Miotto. The Fire Department transported the driver, who sustained abrasions, to a local hospital for evaluation.

One house was left without power. The identities of the driver and passenger have not been released, but the investigation was continuing.

Town of Hempstead workers from the Department of Conservation and Waterways removed the car on May 3.