Felony DWIs For Father Whose Car Went Airborne And Crashed With Toddler Inside

A Rocky Point father faces two counts of felony DWI after a crash in Speonk last Thursday night, December 27, in which his vehicle flew over an embankment, cleared a 4-foot-tall fence, and struck and broke a utility pole—all while his 2-year-old child was in the car, Southampton Town Police said.

Timothy J. Shaw, 34, was intoxicated, police said, when he failed to navigate a turn while driving his 2001 Subaru Forester at about 7:31 p.m. on Montauk Highway, just east of South Country Road in Speonk, on the south side of the road.

Mr. Shaw was not injured in the crash, officers said. His child—whose gender was not specified in a police report—did not appear to be injured, but was taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead for observation, police said, and Child Protection Services was notified.

According to police, witness reports state that Mr. Shaw was speeding eastbound when his car struck an embankment and became airborne, flying over a fence and crashing head-on into the pole before coming to rest in a residential backyard.

Mr. Shaw was arrested at the scene at 9:33 p.m. and charged with two felony counts of DWI, one for having a prior DWI conviction in the past 10 years and the other for violating Leandra’s Law, which elevates a DWI charge to a felony if the driver has a passenger younger than 16 years old in the car. He was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, and having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle, a violation, as well as several other traffic violations, including speeding, police said.

He was remanded to the Suffolk County Jail in Riverside in lieu of $110,500 bail following a Friday morning arraignment in Southampton Town Justice Court and was due back in court on Wednesday, January 2.

In addition, an order of protection was served against him, mandating that he stay away from his children, court officials said. His Subaru was impounded.