A deer on Middle Road just east of Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch caused a two-car accident and sent one man to the hospital Monday afternoon.
A Hyundai Sonata, operated by Joseph A. Seiller, 66, of Greenport, was headed westbound on Middle Road at about 4 p.m. when a deer ran into the road from a patch of woods on the north side of Middle Road, according to Seiller. The impact with Seiller’s Sonata hurled the deer into an eastbound work van operated by Rosario Chiarelli of West Islip, shattering the windshield and injuring the driver inside. There were no other passengers in either vehicle, according to police.
“The deer just came shooting across and he never jumped – he just ran,” Seiller said in an interview at the scene of the accident. “I couldn’t have been going more than 25 mph.”
Seiller said he had just made a righthand turn onto Middle Road from Northville Turnpike soutbound, allowing him only a few hundred feet to accelerate.
Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps transported Chiarelli, the driver of the work van, to Peconic Bay Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries, according to police. Seiller was uninjured.
Both vehicles were towed from the scene and no summonses were issued, police said.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
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