The day after a horrific Greenport crash killed a groom on his honeymoon, the parents of the bride are heading from their Missouri home to her bedside at Peconic Bay Medical Center — to help their daughter face the unthinkable.
Jeremiah and Keturah Grunblatt were honeymooning in Orient Point, her father Richard Stickann said today. They were driving west on Route 25 near Sage Lane in Greenport yesterday when their car swerved in front of an eastbound Suffolk County transit bus in a head-on crash.
Jeremiah Grunblatt, 42, died at the scene; an EMT said his devastated bride, 39, told him they had been married only three days before. Her Facebook page shows photos of the couple’s wedding in Brooklyn, their smiles radiant.
Today, Keturah’s father said, she remains in the hospital with non-life-threatening and no internal injuries.
His daughter lost the love of her life, he said. “They were just perfect for each other.”
The couple had been together for several years and married Sunday. Both, he said, worked in the same field. His daughter is “a director of operas, all over the world,” and Grunblatt, a set designer and director, was her perfect complement, he said.
On his Facebook page, Grunblatt proudly displayed photos of a handmade wooden box he’d made for the ring, when he asked Stickann to be his bride.
“They had a lot in common,” her father said, recalling their work in the opera. “They’d collaborated on a couple of pieces recently.”
Keturah’s mother, Catherine Stickann, arrived in Riverhead today to be with her daughter; her father will fly in from Missouri tomorrow.
“She was conscious through the whole thing,” he said. “She’s still in shock. They were very much in love.”
Police identified the bus driver as Louis Garnica, 50, of Hampton Bays; he sustained a “severe” leg injury, police said.
A Suffolk County Transit bus, the S-92, was heading eastbound on Route 25, crossing the bridge east of Sage Boulevard, when it was struck by the couple’s small SUV, which swerved into the eastbound lane, colliding with the bus, hitting it head-on, and then striking the guardrail, according to emergency officials on the scene.
The bus driver was treated at the scene by Greenport Fire Department rescue squad before being transported to a local hospital. Of the five adult passengers of the bus, one was treated for minor injuries.
Route 25 was closed until late last night from just past the Port of Egypt marina to Albertson Lane.
The accident investigation is ongoing.
