Two Drivers Airlifted After Friday Night Dune Road Head-On Crash

Two drivers, including one with “very serious injuries,” were airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital on Friday night, September 4, following a head-on collision on Dune Road in Hampton Bays, according to Southampton Town Police.

Police said several 911 calls reported the crash near Road K at 7:33 p.m. Officers arrived to find one vehicle on fire and a second vehicle, which did not catch fire, with two occupants still inside and the driver trapped. Hampton Bays Fire Department responded, extinguished the fire engulfing the first vehicle, and extricated the driver from the second vehicle.

Police determined that Mark Criollo, 20, of Hampton Bays was speeding in a 2020 Mercedes-Benz with a passenger, Jonathan Medina-Guanga, 20, when he struck head on a 2018 Mercedes-Benz driven by Barbara Reich, 81, of Boca Raton, Florida.

Ms. Reich and Mr. Criollo were both transported to Stony Brook via Suffolk County Police medevac helicopters. Police said Ms. Reich had very serious injuries and that Mr. Criollo was charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and reckless driving, a misdemeanor.

Mr. Medina-Guanda and Ms. Reich’s one passenger, Rebecca Reich, 20, were both taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Two witnesses, who would not give their names, said Saturday afternoon that they saw a Mercedes-Benz coming from Ponquogue toward East Quogue at close to 90 mph and expected that the driver was going to hit somebody. The two men, in a vehicle headed in the opposite direction on Dune Road, said that the speeding Mercedes did, in fact, hit another vehicle, a white car, just after they noticed it. The white car went into a ditch, and the Mercedes that had been speeding was on fire, they said. The flames started on the bottom of the vehicle and, after a few seconds, the entire vehicle was engulfed, they said.

Southampton Town Police detectives responded to conduct an investigation, and New York State Police assisted with accident reconstruction. Witnesses or anyone with information regarding the crash are asked to call town detectives at 631-702-2230.