Woman hurt in deadly Deer Park nail salon crash sues driver, others

A Dix Hills woman seriously injured in a Deer Park nail salon when an accused drunken driver slammed his car into the business, killing four people, filed a lawsuit Friday against the man behind the wheel, the liquor store that sold him alcohol before the crash, and the salon he drove into.

Nicole Miele, 54, said her life changed forever after she sustained fractured ribs, a broken sternum and cuts to her eyes, face and chest on June 28 around 4:30 p.m. when, prosecutors say, Steven Schwally gunned his 2020 Chevy Traverse to 78 mph through the Kohl’s parking lot, across Grand Boulevard and into the Hawaii Nail & Spa.

There were 14 people, including a 12-year-old girl, inside the business at the time. The salon co-owner, Jian Chai “Ken” Chen, 37, employees Yan Xu, 41, and Mei Zi Zhang, 50, and NYPD officer Emilia Rennhack, 30, of Deer Park, died in the crash. Miele and four others were seriously injured. 

Schwally, 64, pleaded not guilty to 37 charges, including homicide, aggravated vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving. Prosecutors say his blood alcohol content was 0.17, more than double the legal limit to drive.

Miele told Newsday that she had been going to the salon for the past 14 years and knew the owner and many of the nail technicians.

She had made an appointment for a mani-pedi, her first in two months, at 2 p.m. that day to get ready for the Fourth of July holiday the following week. The salon was busy, so there was a 20-minute wait, she said. She went next door to Stant's Liquors to buy some tequila because she planned to make margaritas for the holiday party.

Miele sat for her manicure and then moved to the last chair in the back of the salon to let Zhang do her feet.

“After she was finished, she said, ‘Nicole, all done.’ And I said, ‘Mei, so beautiful.’ ”

Those were her last words to Zhang.

“All of a sudden, it was an explosion, and I ended up on the floor,” Miele told Newsday. “All of a sudden I couldn't breathe. I thought there was a gas explosion. I said, ‘Someone, please help me. I can't breathe.’ I turned over, looked over, and I thought my eye was bleeding.”

She said that through the haze of dust she could see Chen pinned under the car.

In the chaos, she said, she heard Schwally screaming for help.

“People were screaming, yelling, call 911!” Miele said.

A woman came over to her and held her there on the floor until police and EMTs arrived.

“That's all I remember. It was a tragedy,” she said. 

Miele’s lawyer, Joseph Dell, filed suit on behalf of her and her husband, Mark Miele, against Stant's Liquors, for gross negligence. Prosecutors say the store sold Schwally two 375-milliliter bottles of Montebello Long Island Iced Tea Cocktail.

Suffolk County prosecutors said Schwally regularly purchased alcohol from Stant's, sometimes twice a day.

Dell said the liquor store has an obligation under New York’s Dram Shop Act not to sell to a person who is inebriated. 

The liquor store owners hung up the phone Saturday when asked to comment. 

The suit also names Yong Fang LLC, which owns the strip mall, and Hawaii Nail & Spa for not installing bollards or another barrier in front of the shop.

“There's nothing there that's going to stop a vehicle from intruding into the storefronts and killing people,” Dell said.

Yong Fang and the surviving salon owner could not be reached for a reaction to the suit.