Grandmother Pinned in Gas Pump Crash in Long Island Dies: Police

The victim was pinned between the gas pump and her own car, police say

What to Know

  • Rosalie Koenig was pinned by a gas pump in a crash in Shirley on Saturday.
  • Koenig leaves behind two children and four grandchildren.
  • The driver, Renee McKinney, was charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs.

A grandmother who was crushed by a gas pump when an out-of-control car knocked it over on Long Island has died, police say.

Rosalie Koenig, 62, was pronounced dead Sunday at Stony Brook University Hospital, Suffolk County police said.

Koenig was pumping gas at a station on William Floyd Parkway in Shirley around 11:25 a.m. Saturday, police say. She was pinned between the pump and her car. 

"I heard a large bang," said Melissa Delgaudio, a friend of the victim who was in her car. "I look over and saw my friend's face in horror,  I didn't see her after that."

The mother of two and grandmother of four beat cancer in 2008 and was prepping for a Feb. 4 costume party, her daughter Alahna Gerhauser told NBC New York. She noted that Koenig was a 15-year road construction worker for Local 1298.

The driver of the other vehicle, Renee McKinney, 53, had overdosed on heroin and was charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs, police said. She was also taken to the hospital as a precaution.

"People may think she's a horrible person, but she's not a horrible person when she's in the right state of mind," McKinney's friend Michelle Andujar told NBC 4 New York. 

A woman who only identified herself as Ms. Greulich told NBC 4 New York on Monday that McKinney was her ex-girlfriend, and that she'd taken her car without permission. 

"I can't imagine what their family is going through right now," Greulich said of the victim. "I hope and pray that they'll be OK." 

Greulich said she and McKinney had dated on and off for six years, and that she hoped to one day marry her -- but McKinney's substance abuse became too much to bear. 

"Renee is not a bad person. She's just a person who needed help, and she didn't get the help that she needed," she said. 

McKinney was driving her 2002 Nissan Altima on William Floyd Parkway in Shirley when she tried to make a right turn into the Mobil gas station and struck the pump instead, police said. 

It's unclear if the charges against McKinney would be changed after Koenig's death. 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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