Vehicle crashes into T-intersection building — again, officials say

A car driven by an ability-impaired driver slammed into a family-owned industrial firm in Deer Park, invading its vestibule and front office on Saturday morning — possibly the fifth such crash since its opening in 1970, officials said.

Suffolk police said Mark Monserrat was behind the wheel of the Mercedes sedan that struck the NCEEC Inc. building, located at 367 Bay Shore Rd., around 10:33 a.m.

Monserrat, 24, of Olivebridge, was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip for treatment of minor injuries, police said. He was charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs and was scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on Sunday.

"Thank God it was a Saturday, nobody was here," Neal Morofsky, owner and CEO of the sheet metal fabricating and industrial finishing firm, said by telephone.

"It's a nice, sizable amount of damage on a holiday weekend," he said, explaining the car "took out" the front vestibule, the front entrance to the office and printer room, damaged the front desk and possibly a server.

The building, now being inspected to ensure it is structurally sound, was closed for the July Fourth holiday — and all next week. When employees and customers return, Morofsky said, they may be using the side entrance.

Possibly, he suggested, town officials should weigh installing a barrier to block any more vehicles from running the traffic light at Weeks End, which ends at Bay Shore Road, just across from his building.

"I think it's probably about the fifth time it's been hit; I wish the town would put some sort of guard rail up at the corner of Weeks Road," he said. He anticipated spending part of his Saturday talking with insurers and firms that specialize in boarding up properties.

Asked to assess how the damage this collision caused compared with previous ones, Morofsky said: "This is a pretty good one; I'd put this right up there with the best of them."