By JOSEPH KELLARD
While parked outside the Outback restaurant at 3939 Long Beach Road late that morning, an elderly woman apparently pressed on the gas pedal instead of the brake and drove through the front doors of the restaurant, according to authorities. Later that night, at about 10:48 p.m., a man in a black Chevrolet hit a tree and two parked cars on Austin Boulevard at Jamaica Avenue, and was seriously injured. The people who initially reported the later accident said that it took first responders several minutes to arrive at the scene.
No one was injured at the accident at the Outback, but the driver was take to a local hospital for evaluation after she got out of the car on her own. After driving the front half of her car through the restaurant¹s front doors, she initially tried to back the car out. ³We were told that there was smoke at the building because apparently she tried to reverse the vehicle and spun the tires,² said Richard Colon, chief of the Island Park Fire Department, which responded to the scene.
While the Outback opened later that day, after getting clearance from building inspectors
The accident that occurred hours later, when Travis Brush, 22, of Long Beach, barreled into the tree and the parked cars, proved to be the more serious incident. Brush suffered internal injuries and a compound fracture to his left ankle, and was taken to Nassau University Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition, Colon said.
The chief said that Brush¹s car was practically torn in half, and the front axle was found about 50 feet away. Traveling alone, Brush was trapped in his demolished Chevy when the IPFD arrived with the Jaws of Life rescue device to extract him from the car.
Two people who initially arrived at the scene called for emergency help. According to another report, one of these callers, a man who was identified as a former firefighter in Pennsylvania, said that emergency responders arrived about 15 minutes after the initial 911 call.
Colon said that the IPFD¹s dispatcher did not receive a call until 10:59 p.m., that the first chief on the scene, Jim Ruzicka, arrived at 11:02, and that an emergency truck, equipped with the Jaws of Life, arrived at 11:04.
Colon explained that the original call went to 911, the Nassau County Police Department, at about 10:52. ³It wasn¹t until a police officer arrived at the scene about 10:54 that they realized the severity of the accident and injuries,² Colon said. ³He called his dispatchers to contact the fire department immediately. ... The procedure is that 911 police dispatchers will call Fire Com dispatchers, who in turn call Long Beach dispatchers, who are hired by us. There¹s four phone calls made before we actually get the call.²
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
