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East Hampton, NY (April 30, 2026) – A head-on crash between a passenger vehicle and a box truck on Napeague Highway near the Ocean Colony Resort left three people hurt and caused major traffic backups across the area on Tuesday, April 29.
Kathleen F. Mercurio, 83, of Montauk was driving westbound at around 11:15 a.m. when her vehicle collided with an eastbound Freightliner box truck. Mercurio, a member of the Montauk Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary, was seriously hurt and had to be freed from her car before being airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital.
The box truck’s driver, Sergio Ysambert Jr., 25, and his passenger, Pablo Salazar, 44, both from New Jersey, were taken by ambulance to a nearby emergency facility with minor injuries.
The crash closed the roadway for much of the afternoon. A detour was set up using Napeague Meadow Road, and a single lane was eventually opened using the westbound shoulder before all lanes fully reopened around 6:30 p.m. The box truck remained on its side at the scene until after 5 p.m., and both vehicles were impounded for safety inspections. The closure caused commute times to stretch to over two hours for some drivers, and local school bus routes required last-minute adjustments.
Authorities continue to investigate the cause of the crash, and more details will be released as soon as they become available. We are thinking of Kathleen Mercurio and all those hurt as they recover.
How Do Road Closures from Crashes Affect Communities on Long Island’s East End?
The eastern end of Long Island presents a unique challenge in traffic management because many of its roads have no parallel routes. Route 27 through Napeague is one such stretch — a narrow corridor connecting Montauk to the rest of the South Fork with very few alternate paths. When a serious crash closes that road, the effects ripple outward quickly, affecting commuters, school transportation, and local businesses for hours.
Emergency response is also more complicated in these areas. Medevac helicopters are sometimes the fastest way to move a seriously hurt person to a trauma center, especially when ground transport would be slowed by the same backup caused by the crash. Communities on the East End have long recognized that this geographic reality demands careful planning from both local officials and everyday drivers.
