A quiet night on Long Island turned into an absolute nightmare on Thursday when a violent two-car wreck took a local man’s life. Hilton Spokony, a 45-year-old resident of East Patchogue, was riding shotgun when the catastrophic collision happened. He never made it home.
The whole thing went down right around 10:10 p.m. at a busy local crossroads. Emergency crews rushed out to the intersection of Waverly Avenue and Buckley Road in North Patchogue after a series of frantic 911 calls.
According to the local police department, Spokony was riding in a car driven by 79-year-old Meredith Hill, who also lives in East Patchogue. Hill was heading southbound down Waverly Avenue and tried making a left turn onto eastbound Buckley Road. That is exactly when everything went completely sideways.
As Hill turned across the lanes, her vehicle crashed right into a 2016 Dodge Ram pickup truck that was traveling northbound. The truck was driven by 55-year-old Michael Aulivola, a resident from nearby Holtsville. The impact of the crash was incredibly severe.
First responders worked quickly at the scene to help everyone involved. Spokony had sustained incredibly serious injuries from the initial impact. Medics rushed him over to NYU Langone Hospital – Suffolk right there in Patchogue, but doctors unfortunately could not save him. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.
The two drivers involved in the wreck managed to survive the horrific ordeal. Medics took Hill to Stony Brook University Hospital to get treated for injuries that police described as non-life-threatening. Aulivola was also brought to the exact same hospital to get looked at for minor injuries.
Right now, detectives from the Suffolk County Police Major Case Unit are handling the whole investigation to figure out exactly what went wrong. They locked down the intersection for hours and impounded both vehicles so they can run safety inspections. Local authorities are asking anyone who saw the crash or has any helpful information to give them a call at 631-852-6555.
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