Tree strikes car near Southern State, driver injured, fire official says

A driver and his passenger coming off the Southern State Parkway at Carolina Avenue in Hempstead Saturday escaped serious injury when strong winds blew a tree down on the driver’s side of their car, authorities said.

“It was a case of wrong place, wrong time,” Hempstead Fire Department 2nd Assistant Chief Patrick Carney said.

The unidentified male driver suffered minor neck injuries when the tree “in a decaying state” fell on the driver’s side windshield of his Hyundai sedan around 3:10 p.m., Carney said.

The car continued forward as the tree came down, Carney said, and avoided being pinned under its approximately 3-foot wide trunk.

“It was lucky he didn’t stop because it could have been a whole lot worse,” the chief said.

The woman riding in the passenger seat was unharmed, Carney said, but the impact of the tree smashed the driver’s side windshield and the roof of the car.

Good Samaritans driving by helped the driver out of the car, Carney said.

“It was just a windy day,” he said. “The tree looked like it was in a decaying state.”

The offramp for the parkway was still closed to traffic three hours after the crash while authorities cleared the tree off the road.

At least two utility poles and wires were also felled by the falling tree.

Check back for updates to this developing story.