Daniel Brown: 'I don't even remember the impact'

Daniel Brown had no warning.

As his car rounded a slight curve on Sunrise Highway in Eastport early on the morning of April 17, 2008, a flash of lights flooded the darkness. Brown blinked.

When he next opened his eyes, he was lying on the roadway's shoulder, looking into the face of a stranger who was asking him questions. It wasn't until much later that Brown, a New York City police officer, learned what had happened: The driver of a vehicle speeding east in the westbound lanes had struck his Hyundai Elantra head-on.

"I don't even remember the impact," said Brown, now 24. "I just saw a flash of lights. No fear, no pain, no nothing."

Brown felt little pain, but he was seriously injured: a broken arm and leg, a fracture in the neck, and serious internal bleeding.

In the helicopter that took him to Stony Brook University Medical Center, Brown said he asked over and over about the other driver but got no answers.

Jorge Calle-Ortiz, 46, of Southampton - the other driver - was killed in the 3:15 a.m. collision. Police wouldn't say why he was driving the wrong way.

Brown was headed to his Patchogue home at that early morning hour after attending a gathering of friends in Southampton. As a police officer in Brooklyn and a volunteer firefighter in North Patchogue, he had seen the aftermath of fatal crashes and normally did not travel late at night.

So, Brown said, he was intent on making it home safely, driving with the stereo on to keep him focused. He doesn't remember this, but police told him that he swerved slightly to the right to try to avoid the collision.

The impact crumpled Brown's car, broke his seat belts and opened a hole between the roof and the passenger door through which, he said, he was ejected.

He missed a year of work as a patrol officer as he recovered from his injuries.

These days, Brown said, he doesn't think much about the collision.

Ejections in high-speed crashes often spell doom for a motorist, but Brown said being thrown from the mangled vehicle saved him.

"I landed just right," he said. "It was pretty miraculous that I lived."