Police

Driver swerves across traffic, flips SUV on Main Road in Mattituck

PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | A driver flipped her SUV on Main Road in Mattituck Monday evening.

A woman was hospitalized after she swerved across rush-hour traffic and struck a tree, flipping her SUV on Main Road in Mattituck Monday evening.

The driver of a black all-wheel drive Chevrolet Equinox SUV was traveling eastbound on Main Road near Laurel Lake Park at 5:15 p.m. when she struck a mailbox, said Southold police Sgt. Scott Latham.

She then crossed over oncoming traffic, dodged between a tree and the house at 5075 Main Road, drove over a bush and struck a tree near the entrance to Laurel Lake Park, flipping the vehicle and tearing off the front bumper.

Mattituck Rescue and Fire crews responded to the accident and treated the woman at the scene. She was seen in a neck brace and was taken by ambulance to Peconic Bay Medical Center as a precaution, police said. It was not immediately clear if there were any passengers in the SUV.

Sgt. Latham said had the driver swerved left instead of right, she would have driven onto a baseball field where a Little League team was practicing.

“With a day like today, when everyone could haven been out walking, it could have been much worse,” he said.

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