Driver, 24, killed in Cold Spring Harbor accident

A Syosset man driving home from his job as a steakhouse waiter was killed early Sunday in Cold Spring Harbor when he lost control of his car, which crashed and then was struck by a vehicle driven by a woman who was charged with driving while intoxicated.

Suffolk Police said Eric Licursi, 24, was driving his 1996 Honda south on Woodbury Road at 2:49 a.m. when it hit a tree and overturned. Licursi was partially ejected because he apparently was not wearing a seat belt, said Second Squad Det. Sgt. Steven Bluethgen, who added there was no evidence that alcohol was a factor.

PHOTOS: Cold Spring Harbor fatal crash

A couple in a 2003 Lincoln Aviator stopped to help. Then a short time after the crash, Melissa Woods, 33, of Massapequa, was also driving south in her 2007 Toyota Solara and was unable to stop. Her vehicle struck Licursi's Honda and then the unoccupied Aviator, police said.

Licursi, a 2003 graduate of Syosset High School who also worked at a mortgage brokerage firm, was pronounced dead at the scene by a physician's assistant from the Suffolk County medical examiner's office.

Second Squad detectives charged Woods with driving while intoxicated. She was arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip Sunday afternoon. Detectives are continuing to investigate the accident and are trying to determine whether the first or second impact proved fatal.

The passenger in Woods' vehicle was treated and released from Huntington Hospital for minor injuries to her back and shoulder.

Licursi's stepmother, Julia Licursi of Cape Coral, Fla., said he had moved back to Syosset last summer after living with her and her husband, Glenn, since 2008. He had been working at Prime in Huntington and was on his way home when the accident occurred, she said.

"He loved life," she said. "He was very outgoing. He was always willing to laugh and play practical jokes on everybody. He was into athletics and health. He used to go to the gym all the time. He had a motorcycle he loved to ride."