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Fair ‘An irreplaceable soul’
Man dies after crashing into electrical tower on Peninsula Boulevard in Valley Stream
A 29-year-old man was killed when the car he was driving crashed into an electrical tower on Peninsula Boulevard on Sept. 1, the Nassau County Police Department said.
According to detectives, Navado Pratt, of Ronkonkoma, was driving a 2006 Infiniti G35 south on Peninsula Boulevard at 11:45 p.m. when the car left the roadway and struck an electrical tower on the median. Pratt was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
He was ejected from the driver’s seat and found in a creek that divides the roadway a few minutes after responders arrived, according to police. The tower, which is owned by Public Service Electric and Gas, was damaged in the crash.
It was not immediately clear if speed was a factor in the crash, and the investigation was still active as the Herald went to press. Valley Stream firefighters were dispatched to the scene, and waded in 3 feet of water looking for other occupants of the vehicle, but none were found.
James Ervolino, chief of the Valley Stream Fire Department, said that this wasn’t the first fatality on Peninsula Boulevard in recent memory. “It seems like every couple of months we have a fatal accident on that strip,” he said of the section of the road south of Rockaway Avenue.
Those who knew Pratt said he was extremely kind, and loved to make others laugh. According to his Facebook profile, he was a nurse at the Patchogue-based Serene Home Nursing Agency.
“He was a great guy,” said Lindsay Singer, of Islandia, Queens, who worked with Pratt at a Smithtown Red Mango several years ago. “He was always making everyone laugh. [He] made a horrible situation into a better one … Truly an irreplaceable soul.”
Another friend of Pratt’s, who declined to be identified, said she grew up with him in Ronkonkoma.
“I knew him for nearly 20 years, and he was a loving, kind man with the biggest heart,” she said. “He loved everyone, and took special care of the patients he cared for. He was smart and clever, and had an incredible sense of humor. I have never met a person who didn’t fall in love with his personality the moment they met him.”
