A 53-year-old Hampton Bays woman is charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs after a head-on collision on Flanders Road that killed her 80-year-old father and injured her 16-year-old son yesterday.
Southampton Town Police said Claudette Stephens was driving a 2006 Nissan Quest minivan eastbound on Flanders Road near Long Neck Boulevard at about 4:52 p.m. July 9 when she drifted across the turning lane into oncoming traffic in the westbound lane and crashed head-on into a 2014 Honda driven by Carolina Espana, 33, of Riverhead.
John Loetscher, 80, of Hampton Bays, a rear-seat passenger in the Nissan, was pronounced dead several hours later at Peconic Bay Medical Center.
Espana sustained multiple injuries and was transported to Peconic Bay Medical Center, where she is in stable condition, police said.
Stephens and her son were both taken to PBMC. The boy is in stable condition.
Stephens was arrested by Southampton Town detectives and charged with one count of driving while ability impaired by drugs and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
Police said the investigation is continuing and ask anyone who may have witnessed the crash to contact the Southampton Town detectives at 631-702-2230.
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