By:JOSEPH KELLARD
Eugene Aronson, 82, and his wife, Gloria, 75, of Bellmore, were parking their 2005 Nissan in the Marshall's shopping center on Long Beach Road when Eugene lost control of the car and drove through the front doors of the HSBC Bank at about 3:10 p.m.
At about 3:38 p.m., a motorcyclist, John O'Brien, 49, of Long Beach, was making a left turn from Waukena Avenue onto Lawson Boulevard when he was struck by a car driven by Edna Morgenstern, 83, of Valley Stream. Morgenstern, who was driving northbound on Lawson, allegedly ran a red light.
According to police, the Aronsons were pulling into a parking space in front of the bank when Eugene lost control of the car. "Apparently, they had both doors open, and he was going to pull the car into the space and use the ATM, and the woman had her legs out and he had his left leg out," said Detective Sgt. John King, "and for whatever reason he was going to pull closer to the curb. He put the car back in gear, and somehow his foot slipped off the brake and onto the gas and [he] drove right through the doorway. The doorway is very narrow, and the car doors slammed back on their legs."
The Aronsons both suffered compound leg fractures. No other injuries were reported.
In the accident on Lawson, King said that the woman motorist was in the left lane, coming from Daly Boulevard, when she ran a red light at the intersection of Waukena as the motorcyclist was turning left onto Lawson. "He pulled out to make the left-hand turn and she got him," King said. "... He rolled over on her hood and hit his head on the windshield."
O'Brien suffered head injuries and a compound fracture in his left leg. "Both bones were snapped, they were sticking out, and I guess his helmet saved him from hitting his head on the windshield," King said. Police reported no injuries to Morgenstern, who was taken to South Nassau Communities Hospital, and no charges were filed against her.
The victims of both accidents were airlifted by Nassau County police helicopters to the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. King said that in each case, their fractured limbs were set. "It's a waiting game now, from what I'm told," he said.
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