A NY driver has come forward to police after losing a tire on a Long Island highway that is believed to have killed 60-year-old David Dorazio of Lindenhurst, New York on July 6.
On Friday evening, in what is being described as a freak accident, the tire smashed into the front passenger side window of Dorazio’s vehicle on the highway causing him to lose control. He crashed his Saturn into the median on the westbound side of the highway and was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived.
A yellow tarp covered the scene as police investigated the deadly crash. The tire was located roughly 500 feet from Dorazio’s smashed up vehicle.
Joseph Nickel of Islip, New York has since come forward to Suffolk County Police. The 48-year-old told police he was pulling a trailer with his pickup truck on Sunrise Highway going eastbound on Friday evening. When he got home he realized a tire from his trailer was missing.
Two other people were involved in the flying tire crash. Luckily, they were not injured. After the tire hit Dorazio’s vehicle it then hit a Chvy SUV. The driver was able to swerve but maintain control of the vehicle.
“It came from the other side of the highway, and it bounced, hit [the Saturn driver], he hit the wall to avoid him coming back, I swerved, and the tire hit me,” driver Mary DiFranco-Garone told NBC 4 New York.
“We’re very lucky. That poor person, whoever they are. They were just at the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.
Suffolk County policehave since impounded the pickup truck driven by Joseph Nickel as well as the trailer from which the missing tire may have come from. They will perform a safety check as part of an investigation into Dorazio’s death.
Nickel is said to be cooperating with police in the matter.
