Moments after a deadly two-car collision in West Babylon early Saturday that killed an 18-year-old and a 33-year-old and seriously injured four teenagers, Jill Kology and her husband Bill sprang into action.
Jill Kology, a retired registered nurse, said crashes in front of her Great East Neck Road home are common enough that the couple have developed a routine.
“Grab our shoes, grab our phones, run out the door,” she said Saturday, recounting the overnight crash.
Suffolk County police said Michael Desmond, 33, of Lindenhurst, drove a 2017 Kia sedan east on Railroad Avenue through a red light and collided with a 2025 Kia Seltos traveling south on Great East Neck Road at 1:06 a.m.
Desmond was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Riley Goot, 18, of Babylon, who was a passenger in the Seltos, was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip, police said.
The driver of the Seltos, a 17-year-old from Babylon, and two other passengers, both 18 and from Babylon, were also transported to Good Samaritan for treatment of serious injuries. An additional passenger, a 16-year-old from West Babylon, was transported to South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore with serious injuries.
The scene of an early morning crash Saturday in West Babylon. Credit: Paul Mazza
“There was no screech or anything, it was just a boom,” Jill Kology said.
Police cordoned off the road for nearly 12 hours before the area reopened to traffic at 12:30 p.m. A street crossing sign dangled upside down from a damaged pole struck by one of the vehicles.
West Babylon Fire Department 1st Assistant Chief William Allen said he was the incident commander at the scene.
“We began the process of triaging, treating and transporting several patients,” he said after firefighters and other first responders arrived. “All the patients were transported to local trauma centers.”
Jill Kology described the immediate aftermath of the crash as “horrific.”
She faced a harrowing choice of which victims to aid first until additional first responders arrived.
“Do I go to the unresponsive [victim] or the person who’s trapped and may have a chance?” she recalled in an interview outside the home where she has lived since 1989.
The first victim she came across had been ejected, she said. The first police officers arrived moments after the crash, she said, and assisted with pulling victims from the vehicles.
Her husband is a retired FDNY firefighter. When a crash occurs, the two typically split duties, with Jill Kology helping aid any victims and her husband checking the vehicles to make sure they are in park and turned off.
She said local firefighters have gotten to know them by name.
“My sister and my family always say, there’s a reason you moved into this house,” she said.
Other residents agreed crashes are common in the area. One person died in August at the same intersection, police said at the time. In July, three people were injured when a driver crashed a sport utility vehicle into a house on Great East Neck Road — about 500 yards from Saturday’s crash.
At least 106 people have died this year in car crashes on Long Island, according to a Newsday database of police-reported fatalities.
Donna Roy, who has lived on Great East Neck Road for 40 years, described the road in front of her home as a problematic area prone to speeding vehicles and crashes.
She didn’t hear the crash Saturday but was alerted in the morning by police lights flashing through her bedroom window, she said.
“It’s just terrible,” she said.
Bill Elefterion, who lives next door, agreed that crashes on the street were common. He said he has lived there for 50 years.
“I think it’s the overhead trestle,” he said of the overpass for the Long Island Rail Road. “It blocks the light, even though there’s enough lights. I think people maybe are not paying attention.”
Jill Kology recalled her family’s first Easter at the house when an accident occurred in front of the home. In the years since, her kids — and now grandkids — were always reminded to avoid playing in the front yard, she said.
