Cops: Tow truck driver delivers hit-run driver who struck cop car

A drunken driver accused in a hit-and-run with a trooper’s marked car on the Southern State Parkway was arrested after he hitched a ride with a tow truck driver who drove him back to the scene, State Police said.

Mark Trebendis, 51, of Hewlett was driving a Dodge Ram pickup late Monday when he sideswiped the police car driven by a trooper who had just pulled off the eastbound parkway in Hempstead to assist a colleague with a traffic stop, State Police said.

Both troopers were outside their cars shortly before midnight when the second one was struck by the pickup, police said.

“Thank goodness he didn’t go into either of them,” State Police spokesman Trooper Daniel Ahlgrim said. “He hit the parked troop car and kept going.”

The pickup sustained “severe collision damage” in the crash, west of Exit 22, the State Police statement said.

Nassau police found the truck abandoned a short time later where Underhill Avenue intersects Babylon Turnpike in Roosevelt, police said.

Trebendis was apprehended after he flagged down the tow truck driver who was responding to the crash, police said. The defendant was walking “in the vicinity” of the pickup, they said.

The tow truck operator, according to the police, had “knowledge of the situation” so he drove Trebendis back to the crash scene and informed the troopers, police said.

Taken into custody, the defendant was charged with driving while intoxicated, leaving the scene of an accident and unlawful possession of marijuana.

He refused a breath test and was held for arraignment, State Police said.