(Updated: 5:50 p.m.) Three people were injured when an SUV and a Cutchogue Fire Department ambulance were involved in a collision on County Road 48 near the Sunset Motel in Greenport today at about 11:40 a.m.
The ambulance was returning from Eastern Long Island Hospital and did not have a patient on board, Southold Police Chief Martin Flatley said.
The SUV was eastbound on Rt. 48 when the driver, Raul Lopez Gonzalez, 39, of Central Falls, Rhode Island, lost control of his vehicle, which slid sideways on the slippery roadway and into the path of the westbound ambulance, the chief said. The ambulance struck the SUV broadside on the passenger’s side of the vehicle, Flatley said. “It was not a nose to nose impact,” the chief said.
Greenport Fire Department Heavy Rescue responded to the crash and used the jaws of life to remove the passenger side door to gain access to an entrapped victim.
Lopez Gonzalez and his two sons, ages 12 and 16, who were passengers in the SUV, a 2004 GMC, sustained minor injuries. They were treated were transported to ELIH with minor injuries, Flatley said.
Neither of the two Cutchogue Fire Department members in the ambulance were injured.
The crash shut down traffic on Rt. 48 in both directions for about two hours.
Lopez Gonzalez was issued a summons for unlicensed operation, police said in a press release issued late this afternoon.
Southold and East Marion fire department ambulances responded to Greenport Fire Department’s mutual aid request to transport victims to the hospital.
