Remembering the loving couple killed in Greenport motorcycle crash

The Southold couple who died last Tuesday when their motorcycle collided with a bus in Greenport had only recently buried the woman’s daughter, a 37-year-old quadriplegic paralyzed in a near fatal 2004 car accident on County Road 48 in Southold.

Lorraine Haeg had been her daughter Kim’s caretaker since the accident rendered the young woman unable to use her limbs. Ms. Haeg and her partner, Anthony Gallo, had lived together and shared caretaking duties for nearly a decade.

In the three months since Kim’s death, Ms. Haeg and Mr. Gallo had struggled to find peace inside their Southold home , according to shell-shocked friends of the couple.

“They had plans to leave,” said Walter Arevalo, who worked for the couple — primarily doing carpentry and construction work for Mr. Gallo — for the past seven years. “Since their daughter just passed, they didn’t feel good in that house anymore.”

Mr. Arevalo — who spent last Friday morning washing and waxing Mr. Gallo’s Harley Davidson motorcycle and one of his cars — said the motorcycle was an “escape” for the couple.

After Kim died, he said, Mr. Gallo “started to be there more for Lorraine, and do less construction work. They would leave together to not be in the house.”

The couple’s longtime mailman is among many local residents devastated by the loss.

“I saw [Ms. Haeg] weeks following Kim’s passing and told her she was her daughter’s angel, that she kept her alive all these years,” postal worker Chris Turbush wrote in an email. “I told her she now has an angel watching over her — in her daughter Kim. She used to sit on her porch daily and wave and say hello as I delivered the mail.”

Mr. Turbush said Ms. Haeg “was a quiet woman, but after Kim’s passing, I saw her getting out so much more, getting on the back of Anthony’s motorcycle. With her half helmet with a smile [she was] carefree,” he wrote. “I will miss her waves and smiles she gave me daily. Definitely a sad day for our Southold community.”

Mr. Turbush signed off his email with “Chris Turbush (her favorite mailman).”

Rich Hokanson, a longtime friend of Mr. Gallo, said the couple were planning a move to Florida, and were in contract on a home there.

“Anthony and Lorraine were getting ready to purchase a home in Florida and Anthony was going to fix it up and they were going to move down there,” Mr. Hokanson said Tuesday. “After Lorraine’s daughter died a few months ago, I guess she felt so relieved that now she’s finally free,” said Mr. Hokanson, who was a full-time caretaker for his own family members and said he understood the weight of the challenges. ”The two of them took care of her for many years. It’s so sad. Just as you reach the pinnacle of your life, all of a sudden, it’s over.”

Mr. Hokanson, who owns a number of rental homes in Southold, would hire Mr. Gallo to renovate the properties. He said they worked together for many years. 

“If he told you something, he did it,” Mr. Hokanson said. “He wasn’t the kind of guy that will disappoint you. If he told you he was going to be there at 9, he’d be there. He was always very fair with his pricing and work. If there was something you were concerned about, he’d take care of it, no questions asked.”

Mr. Hokanson said he believes Mr. Gallo purchased his motorcycle about five years ago.

“He really talked about his cars more than the motorcycle,” he said. “They used the motorcycle on Sundays — or Fridays.”

Kimberly Charity Tortorella, a friend of Mr. Gallo, said in an email that his family was “too distraught to speak” to a reporter. 

“I have known Anthony for years and he was the best guy,” she wrote. “Anyone could have been lucky to know him. He was always smiling [and] cared deeply for his family … He was adored by anyone that knew him … and would light up a room when he walked in. Such an amazing guy.”

Last Friday morning, Mr. Arevalo said, Mr. Gallo called him and asked if he could come over and wash and wax the couple’s two motorcycles and two cars, which were drenched in pollen.

“I went around 9 a.m. to their house, as usual,” he said. After cleaning their motorcycles and one of their cars, they climbed into their white convertible. “They left around noon [or] 1 p.m., happy — both of them, holding hands. The car was a convertible, he brought the roof down, said they were going to the bank, and he said to me, ‘I’ll be back but if I’m not back in time, I’ll see you tomorrow like always.’ ”

Mr. Hokanson said the couple were on their way home from their motorcycle ride Friday evening when the crash occurred. Greenport Fire Department secretary Jim Kalin, a former assistant chief with 45 years in the department, was among the first responders to reach the accident scene.

“What I saw was the two people lying under the bus,” he recalled in an interview this week. “From what I saw, the way the bike ended up, the bus blocked their path. The bus turned east on Route 25 from Moore’s Lane and the motorcycle was going west. The motorcycle driver started to brake [and] the bike slid under the bus. They were under the middle of the bus. We pulled them out … They were both alive when we put them in the ambulances.”

Southold Police Chief Martin Flatley declined to comment on the incident, saying that his detectives are still conducting their investigation and that New York State Police have not yet completed their accident reconstruction. Once those investigations are concluded, they will be reviewed by Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office to determine whether any criminal charges are warranted.

The driver of the bus was treated at the scene for minor injuries and released, according to a police press release. 

“We can confirm that a Hampton Jitney Coach was involved in a tragic, fatal accident on Tuesday evening,” Hampton Jitney said in a statement to the Suffolk Times. “Our condolences go out to the families and loved-ones of the deceased. We are working with local authorities and PTSB [Public Transportation Safety Board] on the accident investigation and cannot comment further on this event.” The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also mandates a rigorous drug and alcohol testing protocol for bus drivers who have been involved in a fatal collision. 

Founders Tavern waitress Valerie Krause told The Suffolk Times that she would frequently wait on Mr. Gallo and Ms. Haeg.

“They were always so nice, especially Lorraine,” she said.”She was one of those people that you just knew had a good heart and an incredible personality — so sweet and friendly.”

Mr. Arevalo, a Guatemalan immigrant, said he considered Mr. Gallo more of a friend than an employer.

“He was a very happy person all the time. He would always call me his second son, because he only has one son,” Mr. Arevalo said. ”When he would go out to eat he would always invite me and ask, ‘Would you like to see somewhere new?’ He’d take me to have steak — because that’s what he liked. He’d also take me to [Greenport seafood restaurant] Billy’s by the Bay. He’s friends with the owner. Even though I was working he’d take me sometimes to eat lobster.”

Mr. Gallo was a very thoughtful man, he added.“He presented me to all his friends and customers as ‘Tamal,’ the nickname he gave me, so they all know me as that. He never called me Walter because I told him once that my mom called me Walter only when she wanted to yell at me when I did something wrong.”

Mr. Arevalo said Ms. Haeg “always had my back.”

“When she met me, she was happy and said I was her other son and she told me to come into the house as if it was my second home, to take whatever food I wanted,” he recalled. “She’d make me a sandwich. She was always very respectful.”

Mr. Arevalo said he has been in touch with Mr. Gallo’s son, Ms. Haeg’s ex-husband and other friends of the couple.

Mr. Arevalo said that, more than anything, he learned a lot about life from working for the kind and colorful Mr. Gallo.

“He would always be bringing flowers to people he knew,” he said. “He taught me to be there for people when they needed it. I learned a lot from him: to be punctual, fair, honest and always happy, because being angry wasn’t useful at all. That was his motto.”