One person is dead and three were injured after an impaired driver who had her teenage son and father in the car crashed into a minivan Thursday on Long Island, police said.
Claudette Stephens, 53, was driving eastbound on State Road 24 in Flanders around 5 p.m. when she drifted across the turning lane and into oncoming traffic in the westbound lane, according to police.
The 2006 Nissan Quest she was driving crashed head-on into a 2014 Honda minivan near Long Neck Boulevard. Stephens’ and her 16-year-old son were injured and taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center where he is in stable condition. Her 80-year-old father, John Loetscher, who was sitting in the back of the Nissan, was pronounced dead several hours later at the hospital.
Carolina Espana, the 33-year-old driver of the Honda, was also taken to the hospital for multiple injuries and is in stable condition.
Police said Stephens was impaired by drugs at the time of the crash. She is charged with driving while ability impaired and endangering the welfare of a child. It was not immediately clear if she had retained an attorney.
Police ask that anyone who may have seen the crash call police at 631-702-2230.
