Cops: Man dies after crash into dump truck

A man was killed after the car he was driving plowed into a truck that had pulled over to the side of the road in North Babylon at about 7 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.

Thomas Hudson, 28, of Babylon, was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The crash, which occurred on the north side of the Sunrise Highway service road near Statesman Street, involved three vehicles -- a landscaping truck and two cars, police said.

One car struck the landscaping truck and a short time later, a second car hit the truck with such force that its roof was torn off, said James Harrington, chief of the North Babylon Volunteer Fire Company.

"When this kid came flying up, he didn't see the landscaping truck sticking out," Harrington said. "He smashed right into it."

Police said Alejandro Aguillar-Hernandez was driving a 1988 Ford dump truck west on the Sunrise Highway Service Road, west of Route 231, in North Babylon, when his truck was struck by a 2003 Hyundai Sonata.

Aguillar-Hernandez pulled over into the left lane, and he and his passenger got out of the truck, police said. The men went to check on the driver of the Sonata.

Several minutes later, a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta, also traveling westbound, struck the rear of the parked dump truck, police said.

Harrington added that the driver of the first vehicle that struck the truck suffered minor injuries and was taken to Good Samaritan for observation, and that two men in the landscaping truck declined to be treated.

The Volkswagen was impounded for a safety check. Suffolk County Police Motor Carrier Safety Section officers responded and conducted an inspection and safety check on the 1988 Ford dump truck.

Anyone with information on the accident is asked to call the First Squad at 631-854-8152.

With Gary Dymski