Truck Driver Describes Multicar Crash on County Road 39 in Southampton

Heading east on County Road 39 with a delivery, truck driver Lamar Robinson of Yaphank was listening to Amazon Music and cruising under clear skies on the morning of Wednesday, November 9. He was coming up on the Tuckahoe Road traffic light at about 10:30.

Suddenly, a red car careened past his massive roll-off container truck in the left lane. Fishtailing out of control, it crossed over into oncoming traffic smashing into a westbound tractor-trailer truck. Pieces of the 2019 Nissan Maxima flying, the sedan bounced off the tractor-trailer and, airborne and spinning, hit Robinson’s truck in the right lane.

Behind the wheel of a 76,000-pound vehicle, he didn’t even feel the impact.

“I wasn’t going to go anywhere when that thing hit me,” he said in a telephone interview on Thursday, November 10. A jolt and bang, however, are noticeable on the dashcam video he shared with The Express News Group.

A blue 2011 Audi in the left lane heading east was coming up behind Robinson and couldn’t help but hit the Maxima. And as vehicles behind the tractor-trailer braked to avoid the mayhem, a van rear-ended a small gray hybrid on the shoulder of the west side of County Road 39.

It was all over in 12 seconds, according to the dashcam counter, Robinson’s music still playing, with six vehicles involved.

It looked like the Audi and Nissan hit head on, their grills were practically intertwined, the Nissan’s windshield a spiderweb of cracks, its front and back bashed beyond recognition.

The Southampton Fire Department was called to the scene; one of the vehicles was smoking. Debris was scattered for yards across the road.

“I thought people were definitely dead,” Robinson recalled.

Then, emergency responders arrived and two people emerged from the crumpled Nissan. “They were limping, but they were able to walk, which blew my mind,” Robinson said. “I don’t even understand how they survived that.”

According to Southampton Town Police, the driver, Jason Manigault, 20, of Middle Island, was the only person injured. He was arrested and charged with misdemeanor driving while under the influence of drugs; the arrest report made note of a “strong odor of marijuana” coming from the mangled car and described Manigault as having “droopy eyes and slurred speech.”

The report also states that as police attempted to handcuff him, he resisted, garnering a second misdemeanor count, resisting arrest. He was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital and released into police custody.

“He must have been weaving through traffic,” Robinson surmised. “He had to be doing 70 or more. He was going really fast.”

A commercial truck driver, he said it was good that the Nissan hit the huge tractor-trailer truck first. “If it was a regular car, they probably would have killed somebody. Because the tractor is 40,000 pounds, it could take that hit.”

Still, the tractor-trailer was totaled. It took the hit at the driver’s side front bumper so hard that it popped the truck’s hood.

County Road 39 was closed for close to five hours, snarling traffic on the South Fork’s main artery as police investigated the scene and officials from the Department of Transportation arrived to inspect the trucks.

“It was gridlock,” Robinson said. “Nothing could move.”

Robinson was able to make his delivery, if late. The roll-off truck was still operational, despite looking worse for wear. The Nissan hit the hydraulic tank on the front of the driver’s side. “Luckily the tank is steel, so the car bounced off of that. But I had pieces of the car all on the side of the truck. There was glass, a mirror was resting on the side of the truck. It was crazy,” Robinson said.

Speaking generally, he believes everyone should have to learn about trucks and how to drive near them — that the heavy haulers can’t brake quickly when a car cuts in front of them.

Reflecting back on Wednesday’s accident, he said: “I drive commercial trucks, and I see people driving like that all the time. One wrong turn and you could die, or kill somebody else.”