Two Women Hospitalized After Toyota Collides With Dump Truck in Coram

Two Women Hospitalized After Toyota Collides With Dump Truck in Coram. April 16, 2026.

Updated Apr 21, 2026
MAJOR INCIDENT
Town
Coram
County
suffolk County
Reported
Updated
Source
News Sources
📌Approximate area — Coram centroid Open in Google Maps →

Map showing incident location at 40.7800, -73.3000 Incident location, Long Island

What Happened

Two women were severely injured Wednesday afternoon when their Toyota crashed into a dump truck while attempting a left turn at a Coram intersection, according to Suffolk County police. The collision occurred around 3:30 p.m. at the intersection of Patchogue-Mount Sinai Road and Pine Road.

Tanya Fernandez, 39, of Coram, was driving a 2007 Toyota with passenger Laura Thiele, 37, of Centereach, when she attempted to make a left-hand turn from Patchogue-Mount Sinai Road onto Pine Road, police say. During the turning maneuver, the two vehicles collided at the intersection.

Both women sustained serious physical injuries in the crash and were transported to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment, according to authorities. The extent of their injuries was not immediately disclosed, but police characterized them as severe.

The dump truck operator, Matthew Corliss, 35, of Centereach, was not injured in the collision, police reported. The impact appears to have primarily affected the Toyota, though specific details about the vehicles’ conditions were not released.

Suffolk County police detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash. The department is asking anyone who may have witnessed the collision or has information about the incident to contact the detective squad at 631-854-8652.

The crash temporarily disrupted traffic flow at the busy intersection as emergency responders worked to clear the scene and transport the injured women to the hospital. Both Patchogue-Mount Sinai Road and Pine Road are well-traveled routes in the Coram area, particularly during afternoon hours when commuter traffic is heavy.

Location & Road Context

The collision occurred at the intersection of Patchogue-Mount Sinai Road and Pine Road in Coram, a central Suffolk County community. Patchogue-Mount Sinai Road serves as a major north-south corridor connecting the hamlet of Mount Sinai on the North Shore to Patchogue on the South Shore, carrying significant local and through traffic throughout the day.

The intersection where the crash took place sees regular traffic from residents and commuters navigating between residential neighborhoods and commercial areas. Pine Road provides access to local residential streets and connects to other major roadways in the Coram area. The 3:30 p.m. timing of the crash coincides with afternoon rush hour periods when traffic volume typically increases as people leave work and school dismisses.

Suffolk County police detectives continue to investigate the cause of the collision and the specific circumstances that led to the crash. No charges have been announced at this time, and authorities have not released information about potential contributing factors such as speed, weather conditions, or mechanical issues.

The investigation will likely focus on determining right-of-way, visibility conditions at the intersection, and whether any traffic control devices were functioning properly at the time of the crash. Detectives are seeking additional witnesses who may have observed the collision or the moments leading up to it, as eyewitness accounts could provide crucial details about how the crash unfolded.

Broader Impact

The crash highlights ongoing safety concerns at Long Island intersections, particularly those involving left-turn maneuvers across busy roadways. Left-turn collisions often result in serious injuries due to the positioning of vehicles and the potential for T-bone impacts, as drivers making turns can be particularly vulnerable to oncoming traffic. The involvement of a commercial dump truck in this incident likely contributed to the severity of injuries sustained by the occupants of the smaller passenger vehicle.

Topics

CoramSuffolk CountySuffolk County accidentCoram trafficCoram accidentLong Island accident todayLong Island traffic todayLong IslandNY

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I do if I'm in a car accident in Coram?

Call 911 immediately if anyone is injured or if the vehicles can't be moved safely off the roadway. Stay at the scene — leaving the scene of an accident with injuries is a crime under New York Vehicle and Traffic Law §600. Exchange license, registration, and insurance information with every other driver involved. Take photographs of every vehicle, the position of the vehicles before they're moved, all license plates, the road surface, traffic signs, and any visible injuries. Get the names and phone numbers of every witness — police often won't capture bystander witnesses on their own. Seek medical attention within 24 hours even if you feel fine; soft-tissue injuries and concussions can take a day or two to present, and a delayed medical visit weakens an injury claim. SCPD covers the five western towns of Suffolk County. The five East End towns (Southampton, East Hampton, Riverhead, Southold, Shelter Island) have their own town/village police forces. New York State Police Troop L responds to accidents on state highways including I-495 (LIE), Sunrise Highway (NY-27), Sagtikos Parkway, and Heckscher State Parkway.

How long do I have to file a no-fault claim in New York?

Thirty days. New York Insurance Law §5102 requires you to file a Personal Injury Protection (PIP/no-fault) application with the insurer of the vehicle you were in (or, if you were a pedestrian or cyclist, with the insurer of the striking vehicle) within 30 days of the accident. Missing the 30-day deadline can void your no-fault benefits — that's up to $50,000 in medical bills and 80% of lost wages (capped at $2,000/month) per injured person. The form is the NF-2 application; your insurance carrier provides it on request. New York no-fault is a true PIP system: it pays regardless of who caused the crash.

What counts as a "serious injury" under New York law?

Under Insurance Law §5102(d), a "serious injury" is one that meets at least one of these categories: (1) death; (2) dismemberment; (3) significant disfigurement; (4) a fracture; (5) loss of a fetus; (6) permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function, or system; (7) permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member; (8) significant limitation of use of a body function or system; or (9) a medically determined injury that prevents the injured person from performing substantially all daily activities for at least 90 of the first 180 days following the accident. Only injuries that meet one of these nine categories create the right to sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering damages — short of that threshold, recovery is limited to no-fault PIP benefits. Disputes over whether an injury meets the threshold are the single most-litigated issue in NY motor-vehicle cases.

How long do I have to sue after a Long Island car accident?

Three years from the date of the accident for personal injury claims under CPLR §214(5). Wrongful death claims have a two-year deadline under EPTL §5-4.1. If a government entity is involved (a county vehicle, a road defect on a state highway, a defective traffic signal, a county bus), you must file a Notice of Claim within 90 days under General Municipal Law §50-e — that's a non-negotiable jurisdictional deadline, and missing it usually bars the claim entirely. Property-damage-only claims have the same three-year clock. The clock starts on the day of the accident, not the day you discover the full extent of an injury.

Can I still recover compensation if I was partly at fault?

Yes. New York is a pure comparative negligence state under CPLR §1411. Even if you were 90% at fault, you can still recover 10% of your damages. (A pending 2026 budget proposal would change this to a 51% bar — meaning a plaintiff who is more than 50% at fault would recover nothing — but that hasn't passed.) Insurance carriers routinely try to inflate the injured driver's percentage of fault to reduce payouts. The percentage assignment is decided by the jury at trial (or negotiated during settlement); it isn't fixed by the police accident report and isn't binding even when the report assigns fault. Reporting practice and the actual legal apportionment are separate questions.

How do I get a copy of the police accident report?

If Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) responded to the scene, the report is filed under an MV-104A form. In New York State, you can request a copy through the DMV at https://dmv.ny.gov/vehicle-safety/get-copy-accident-report (roughly $7 online, $10 by mail) once the responding agency has uploaded it to the state system, which usually takes 5-10 business days. NCPD and SCPD also have their own direct-request processes through the precinct that responded. If you weren't injured but the property damage exceeded $1,000, New York VTL §605 requires you (the driver) to file your own MV-104 report with the DMV within 10 days regardless of whether police responded.

How dangerous is This Road near Coram?

Long Island Traffic tracks every reported incident on this road across both counties — see the road profile page for the multi-year accident count, severity distribution, and the specific intersections that show repeated incident clusters. Suffolk and Nassau county roads with chronic problems are reviewed by their respective DOTs on a multi-year cadence; persistent issues are sometimes addressed with new signal phasing, lane-narrowing treatments, or — in extreme cases — a Vision Zero engineering response. Daily incident updates flow into our live-events feed every fifteen minutes.

Disclaimer: Incident information on this page is compiled from public sources including police reports, traffic agencies, and news outlets. It is provided for informational purposes only and may not reflect the most current status of this incident. Do not rely on this information for legal, insurance, or emergency decisions. For emergencies, call 911.