An SUV slammed into a Long Island nail salon on Friday, killing four and injuring nine inside the business at the time, a Suffolk County fire official said. The Chevy Traverse came to a stop at the back of the Hawaii Nail & Spa store in Deer Park about 4:40pm local time. "There were people trapped," Dominic Albanese, assistant chief of the Deer Park Fire Department, told reporters at the scene, per the AP. "We extricated them and transported them to area hospitals." The driver was semiconscious and taken to a hospital, Albanese said.
Photos from the scene showed a gaping hole in the storefront, which is in a strip mall. Eric Perez told Newsday he was loading groceries into his car across from the accident scene when he heard a speeding car and then a noise that "sounded like shattering." "It was a sound that I never heard before," he said. As he and his wife were leaving the parking lot, he said, he saw emergency crews removing victims from the scene. "We saw the ambulance and emergency workers pulling one body out," he said. "And I saw two women I think worked there come out on stretchers."
Police say the driver, who was hit with DWI charges, has been IDed as 64-year-old Steven Schwally, per WABC. He's said to have suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Three women and a man died at the scene, and nine others were transported to area hospitals; it's not clear what their conditions are. About 150 firefighters and medical personnel responded to the crash, Albanese said. "It's horrible. It's going to be tough for the community, tough for the volunteer fire department," he said, per the AP. "But we're going to get through it." Suffolk County Police Department detectives were investigating, a police spokesperson said.
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