Car makes fatal flight - Newsday.com
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Car makes fatal flight
Speeding Honda hits dead end, launches across 200 feet, lands in building's 2nd story, killing driver, cops say
BY CHRISTINE ARMARIO
Newsday Staff Writer
September 13, 2006
Amrita Bijoor was asleep in her Coram bedroom yesterday morning when a Honda Accord flew into the bathroom of her second-floor apartment, killing the driver.
"Something came through my window!" she shouted to neighbors who had gathered outside after hearing a loud thud.
"Come down!" they urged her.
It was only after she stood outside that she realized what had caused the booming crash: a maroon car, with the driver stuck inside, wedged sideways through a gaping hole in her building's white brick wall.
Ten feet away from her bed, debris and smoke filled the air.
"If she had been in the bathroom, she would have been dead," said Joe Gandolfo, who witnessed the accident yesterday around 9:30 a.m.
Suffolk police and Gandolfo said Vincent Pontillo Jr., was speeding at more than 100 mph through the dead-end street he lived on, when he hit a berm of dirt and trees that propelled him into the air. Police said his car flew nearly 200 feet across a lawn and into the apartment complex on Navajo Court.
Pontillo, 43, was pronounced dead at the scene. Det. Sgt. Michael Fitzharris of Suffolk's Sixth Squad said it was not known why the car was driven so fast, but alcohol did not appear to be a factor. Nor did Pontillo seem upset before the crash, police said after interviewing family members.
"We're hoping for some more information from the medical examiner's results," Fitzharris said. Among other details they will be evaluating, he said, is whether Pontillo's health played a role.
Gandolfo was standing on the porch of his girlfriend's house when he saw Pontillo's car speed down Osborne Avenue and career through a patch of trees at the street's end. Police said the berm Pontillo hit was between three and five feet high. His car went over a one-story laundry building adjacent to the apartment complex, at a height of 10 to 20 feet.
"I just saw him go by in a blur," Gandolfo said. "Then I saw it [the car] hanging at the back of the building."
He yelled for his girlfriend, Lisa McGovern, who was making coffee, to call 911 and ran over to the apartment complex. Then he climbed up the gas pipes on the wall of the building and got inside.
The roof of the vehicle had been crushed, Gandolfo said.
"I couldn't even see the person," Gandolfo said.
Police said three or four apartments were structurally damaged, and the crash nearly injured two people. In addition to Bijoor, a woman on the first floor also escaped unharmed.
The vehicle was removed several hours later with a back hoe. Pontillo's family then identified him, Fitzharris said. Police said Pontillo lived on the same street he sped down.
Pontillo's relatives declined to comment yesterday evening.
Bijoor said she would be temporarily relocating to her mother's house. Yesterday, she was comforted at the scene by family and friends.
"When she called, I couldn't believe my ears," said Cathy Bryant, a family friend. "You can't believe it unless you see it."
Site of accident
1: Honda Accord, speeding at 100 mph, goes over 3-foot-high berm.
2: Car goes up to 20 feet airborne over lawn of apartment complex.
3: Car plows through brick wall of second-floor apartment
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