Incident location, Long Island
What Happened
Two people are dead and multiple others were injured after two separate, unrelated crashes tore through the Long Island Expressway over the Memorial Day weekend, according to News 12 Long Island. The incidents — one a suspected drunk-driving wrong-way collision in Nassau County, the other a fatal single-vehicle crash far to the east in Suffolk County — unfolded within hours of each other on the same major highway corridor, leaving investigators and first responders stretched across dozens of miles of I-495.
The first crash erupted just before 7 a.m. Sunday morning in East Hills, between Exits 36 and 38 of the Long Island Expressway. Nassau County detectives say that Jorge Arias Reyes, a 49-year-old Hempstead man, was behind the wheel of his vehicle driving westbound in the eastbound lanes when he struck a Toyota traveling in the correct direction. The head-on nature of the impact caused serious injuries to both Reyes and the driver of the Toyota, both of whom were rushed to the hospital. News 12 Long Island reported that police say Reyes was driving while intoxicated at the time of the collision.
The damage at the scene was significant enough to draw immediate attention from eyewitnesses passing by. “Debris everywhere. All kinds of debris, car parts. It was pretty bad,” one witness told News 12 reporters at the scene, underscoring the severity of the impact. The crash forced authorities to close that stretch of the LIE in both directions for nearly two hours — a major disruption on one of the nation’s busiest suburban expressways, particularly on a holiday weekend when traffic volumes are elevated.
Adding another layer of complexity to the incident, police say Reyes was also involved in a prior accident near Exit 41 — a separate crash that may be connected to the sequence of events that led him to be traveling the wrong way on the expressway. Authorities did not release further details on that collision in initial reports. Critically, details surrounding exactly how Reyes entered the eastbound lanes of the LIE while traveling westbound were not immediately available, according to News 12 Long Island. That question — how a wrong-way driver gains access to a controlled-access highway — is a key focus of ongoing investigations in cases like this.
The second crash, entirely separate in cause and location, claimed two lives Saturday night in the eastbound lanes of the LIE near Exit 70, considerably further east in Suffolk County. Authorities say the driver of a 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt lost control of the vehicle in what is being described as a single-vehicle crash. In a grim outcome that underscores the dangers of not wearing a seatbelt at highway speeds, the driver was ejected from the Cobalt. Both the driver and a passenger were pronounced dead at the scene by responding authorities. No additional passengers or vehicles are believed to have been involved in that crash. The identities of the two victims have not yet been released by authorities.
Taken together, the two crashes resulted in two confirmed fatalities and multiple injuries across the span of a single weekend — a stark reminder of the dangers that accumulate on a road that sees tens of thousands of commuters and travelers every day, and particularly during high-volume holiday periods like Memorial Day weekend.
Location & Road Context
The Long Island Expressway (I-495) is the primary east-west artery across Long Island, stretching roughly 70 miles from the Queens–Nassau border out to Riverhead in eastern Suffolk County. The East Hills crash between Exits 36 and 38 sits in a densely trafficked Nassau County segment, where the LIE passes through some of the island’s most populated suburban communities. The Exit 70 area, by contrast, is a more rural stretch deeper into Suffolk County, where reduced lighting and higher speeds can make single-vehicle crashes especially deadly. Long Island Traffic’s database currently records 795 incidents on I-495, reflecting the expressway’s status as one of Long Island’s most dangerous corridors — with recent incidents including crashes, overturned vehicles, and disabled cars logged as recently as May 2026.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
Jorge Arias Reyes, 49, of Hempstead, is facing charges in connection with the wrong-way crash, Nassau County detectives confirmed. The primary charge is driving while intoxicated. Because both Reyes and the Toyota’s driver sustained serious injuries, the case may be subject to upgraded charges depending on the outcomes of those hospitalizations and the findings of the ongoing investigation. In New York State, a DWI charge that results in serious physical injury to another person can be elevated to Aggravated Vehicular Assault, a felony carrying substantial prison time. No arraignment date or bail information had been released as of the initial report published May 18, 2025. The investigation into how Reyes entered the expressway in the wrong direction remains active.
The fatal single-vehicle crash near Exit 70 remains under investigation as well. Because the driver was ejected — strongly suggesting the absence of a seatbelt — investigators will be examining vehicle condition, speed, road conditions, and whether any additional factors such as impairment played a role in the crash. No charges had been announced in connection with the Exit 70 fatalities as of the time of reporting.
Broader Impact
New York State law requires all front-seat occupants to wear seatbelts, and rear-seat passengers face fines for non-compliance as well — but enforcement cannot prevent every tragedy. The ejection of the driver in the Exit 70 crash is a stark data point: according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, ejection from a vehicle is one of the leading causes of crash fatalities, and the vast majority of ejection victims are unbelted. For wrong-way DWI incidents like the East Hills crash, New York’s aggravated vehicular assault statutes provide for felony prosecution when serious injuries result — a legal framework intended to reflect the extreme recklessness of driving intoxicated in the wrong direction on a controlled-access highway.