By John C. O'Connell
According to detectives, a 1999 BMW was traveling westbound on East Merrick Road when it was struck by an eastbound 2002 Chevrolet van turning left onto northbound Cornwell Avenue at 5:19 p.m.
As a result of the collision, police said, the BMW veered out of control and slid sideways, its passenger side striking a utility pole and flattening a parking meter on the north side of Merrick.
The BMW's driver would likely also have been lost in the fire, but for the brave acts of others.
Jos Quinones and Gloria Acosta were driving east on Merrick Road when they saw the car fire. Police and firefighters had not yet responded.
"I saw it and I said, 'Oh my God,' and I did like a 45-degree turn and stopped right there in the street and just got out," Quinones said Monday. "I saw two guys in the car."
The back half and passenger side of the car was on fire, Quinones said. He couldn't see the back seat.
"I ... opened the driver's door and see [the driver] is slumped over the passenger in the front. Both of them are [unconscious]. I wasn't thinking, Am I going to get hurt? I grabbed [the driver] by his legs and pulled him out. Then the other guy helped me carry him away from the car."
The other man was Phil Fiorentino, 28, of Massapequa, who was credited for his involvement in the rescue in TV reports Sunday night. Fiorentino was at his brother's house on Foster Avenue for a Father's Day barbecue when he heard a loud crash.
"I heard an explosion," Fiorentino said Tuesday. "We went down there and I was the first one there." He said he tried to open the passenger side door and couldn't. He went to the driver's side, he said, and pulled that door open. "I grabbed [the driver] and brought him about 10 feet away, and then I tried to get back in for the other guy but the fire was so bad I couldn't." Fiorentino said his face was "a little burned" in the process.
An off-duty NYPD police officer was on the scene, too, and she helped Quinones and Fiorentino drag the driver to safety, Quinones said. Quinones ripped off his shirt and put it underneath the driver's head, he said. According to Quinones, the driver was conscious but delirious, and was yelling, "My leg, my leg, my leg."
Quinones told what happened next through tears. "Then I went to go back in to get the other guy, the passenger ... but the flames ... I touched his arm twice; I touched him, but the fire was so bad on that side I just had to back up."
That side was already burning. Gas was running underneath the car, Quinones said.
The two passengers were later pronounced dead at the scene, police said. They have not released the names of the victims or that of the BMW's driver.
"The car had those low-profile, custom performance tires. I know you can lose control very fast," said Quinones, 30, who works as an auto mechanic at Mann's Auto in Long Beach.
His companion, Gloria Acosta, couldn't believe what was happening. "It all was going so fast," she said. "It was like a movie. I am so proud of Jos. I thought when we stopped we'd just be looking and then Jos gets out, runs up and saves the man's life."
Quinones and Acosta went to visit the driver at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre on Monday. They saw his pregnant wife outside the hospital room, and she thanked Quinones and hugged him.
She was grateful. "I don't know what I would have done if [my husband] didn't come home," the wife said, according to Acosta.
The driver was listed in fair condition on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for the hospital.
Detectives report that the driver of the van, after initially exiting his vehicle and observing the accident, left the scene. Witnesses supplied the van's license plate number to police, who issued an alarm for the car and driver. Approximately 40 minutes later, police said, the van's driver, Howard Antosofsky, 42, of 1335 Fayette St., Teaneck, N.J., returned to the scene, where he was arrested. At the time of the accident, Antosofsky's wife, Rachel, and their five children were in the van.
Antosofsky is charged with leaving the scene of a fatal auto accident and leaving the scene of an incident without reporting. He was issued an appearance ticket returnable to First District Court in Hempstead on June 26.
The Valley Stream Fire Department responded to the accident in full force. Initially transmitted as a car fire, it was upgraded to a general alarm by Assistant Chief Brian Howley, and all fire companies turned out.
"When we got there the car was fully involved," Howley said. "Due to the severity of the fire, I upgraded it to a general. Power lines and cables were burning, and the adjacent deli was getting burned. We put out the car fire first and then attacked the other fires. All the firefighters did a good job at the scene."
Quinones hasn't recovered from his own trauma of pulling the driver out and his depression over being unable to get the front-seat passenger out.
"I couldn't sleep last night," he said Monday. "There was such flames in the car. It was so bad. I never saw anyone in the back seat. I never saw the back seat. It was all flames. There were flames coming out of the car. I couldn't even think. I saw the guy burning to death," he said. "I can't sleep."
Quinones and Acosta placed two roses at the scene Monday morning. "We saw them put the sheets over them right there," Quinones said. "I can't sleep."
