Rescue Of Accident Victim

At 11:22 a.m. on the morning of Monday, January 15th, Suffolk County 911 dispatch received a report of a man in the woods off the side of the Robert Moses state parkway, calling for help and claiming to have been kidnapped. The responding ranger and other officers determined that the 22-year-oold man had been involved in a motor vehicle accident in the park along its western boundary with Robert Moses State Park. It appears that the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed and going the wrong way down the divided four-lane highway through the state park. At the end of the paved roadway, the car careened over a berm, going airborne before landing in a dense shrub thicket almost 300 feet beyond the pavement. The accident is believed to have occurred around 8 a.m. The unseasonably warm weather appears to have staved off hypothermia until the victim was discovered. He was extricated by noon and admitted to a local hospital, where he’s in stable condition with internal injuries and a broken arm. He’s been charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, damaging natural features and making a false report.