Driver crashes through Farmingville vitamin store and sustains minor injuries

A driver slid on wet pavement Friday morning and crashed through the front of a Farmingville strip mall’s vitamin and nutritional supplement store, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

The driver, a 68-year-old woman from Medford operating a 2021 Mazda, sustained minor injuries in the 9:19 a.m. crash and was brought to Stony Brook University Hospital, the police press office wrote in an email to Newsday. The store, a GNC at 2322 N. Ocean Ave., was damaged. Her name wasn't disclosed. No one else was hurt. 

A Brookhaven town inspector on the scene found no structural damage, just the glass and window damage, but that was enough for the location to be declared unsafe, Tara McLaughlin, a deputy building commissioner, said in an interview. The store can reopen, she said, once the window area is boarded up and a temporary, operable door installed — pending the reinstallation of the glass and a permanent door.

Amber Yunus, a GNC employee, was just arriving for work for the store’s scheduled 10 a.m. opening when she saw the crash aftermath and the police investigating.

“When I came, in the car was half way in the store,” she told Newsday.

The business didn’t open and might not Friday.

“It’s pretty damaged,” Yunus said.

Shattered glass was seemingly everywhere she said, adding that there was a concern that opening the door could cause more glass to fall.

The crash shook the adjoining structures, including Taco Island Mexican Cantina next door, owner Aman Bhola told Newsday. The staff had been busy preparing food to send out for Teacher Appreciation Day celebrations. Everything shook. The decor fell.

"It was horrible. We had a big explosion,” he said.

There is damage and yellow caution tape nearby, and customer traffic is way down, he said, and the business is struggling to tell prospective customers the eatery is open.

“People don’t want to come into the store,” he said.

Bhola called his contractor to examine the building for structural damage in the crash.

Across the United States, drivers crash into commercial buildings and related structures more than 100 times per day, causing what is estimated to be 16,000 injuries and more than 2,600 deaths annually, according to the Storefront Safety Council.

Next month marks the one-year anniversary of the deadly nail salon crash in Deer Park that killed three workers and a customer and injured nine others after a runaway driver careened into the storefront. The driver, who was allegedly drunk, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.