Box Truck Driver Arrested for DWI

Drove the Wrong Way on a Section of the LIE

Suffolk County Police arrested an Elmhurst man for driving while intoxicated, reckless driving and fleeing from a police officer after he drove the wrong way on the Long Island Expressway.

Highway Patrol officers responded to a 911 report of a 2017 Hino box truck swerving across the roadway as it traveled eastbound in the westbound lanes of the LIE near Exit 48 on December 5 at 9:55 p.m. The truck =continued the wrong way for four exits before cutting across the center median in the vicinity of Exit 52, where it continued eastbound in the eastbound lanes. A Highway Patrol vehicle, with lights and siren activated, followed the truck as it swerved back and forth across all lanes of traffic, but did not stop. The truck finally came to a stop at Exit 62 in Holbrook after it rolled over stop sticks that had been set by other responding officers at approximately 10:20 p.m.

The driver, Nicolas Lopez Gomez, 30, of 4285 Hampton St., was arrested and charged with DWI, fleeing an officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree, and reckless driving. He was held overnight at the Sixth Precinct and is scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on December 6.