A drunk driver smashed her vehicle into a home on Main Road in Greenport late Tuesday, then fought with officers who tried to arrest her, Southold Town police said.

Dawn Cone, 47, of Greenport allegedly crashed into the house about 10:26 p.m., according to a news release. A police investigation found she was drunk at the time of the crash, police said.

Ms. Cone got into a “short struggle” with officers and was ultimately arrested. She was charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated, resisting arrest and harassment, a violation, according to the news release.

She was taken to Southold Town police headquarters and held for a morning arraignment.

No one was injured in the crash, police said. It was not immediately clear if anyone was home at the time of the incident.

psquire@timesreview.com

Bail was lowered today for the man police said was driving drunk in a crash that killed four women on Saturday. He is due back in court in mid-September.

Peconic resident Steven Romeo, 55, has been at Eastern Long Island Hospital since Saturday. According to Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, he suffered a broken nose in the crash. He was arraigned at his bedside in the hospital on Sunday, where he pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charge.

Bail was lowered from $1 million bond/$500,000 cash to $100,000 bond/$50,000 cash on Thursday afternoon at Southold Town Justice Court in front of Town Justice Rudolph Bruer.

According to Mr. Bruer, at Mr. Romeo’s arraignment on Sunday — which was closed off to the public — both sides agreed to again discuss the terms of the bail at Mr. Romeo’s next hearing. Assistant District Attorney John Scott Prudenti told Mr. Bruer that because of the expected long length of the investigation, the bail should be lowered at this point. Mr. Prudenti said that there are no updated charges at this time.

Mr. Romeo had originally been scheduled to appear in court tomorrow, though both sides agreed to meet a day early. Neither prosecutors nor Mr. Romeo’s defense attorney commented as to why.

Both sides met in the Mr. Bruer’s chambers with the town justice for 15 minutes prior to the hearing.

When asked by Mr. Bruer,Mr. Romeo’s attorney, Steven O’Brien told the town justice that he hopes his client will be able to post bail soon.

Mr. O’Brien, declined to discuss his client’s injuries.

“I won’t offer comment on that,” he said. “I won’t offer comment on the case at all.”

According to authorities, Mr. Romeo was driving his truck westbound on Route 48 shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday when he hit a limousine that had eight young women inside of it. Three were killed instantly, one died at the hospital and four more passengers were injured.

Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Elizabeth Miller said on Sunday that additional charges are expected in the case as Mr. Romeo is currently facing just one misdemeanor drunk driving charge.

The crash took the lives of Brittany Schuman, 23, of Smithtown; Lauren Baruch, 24, of Smithtown; Stephanie Belli, 23, of Kings Park; and Amy Grabina, 23, of Commack.

Injured but surviving the crash were four additional passengers: Joelle Dimonti, 25, of Elwood; Melissa Crai, 23, of Scarsdale; Alicia Arundel, 24, of Setauket; and Olga Lipets, 24, of Brooklyn. The driver of the limousine, 58-year-old Carlos Pino of Bethpage, was also treated for non-life threatening injuries at a Suffolk County hospital.

Police were later notified that after the crash, Mr. Romeo had walked away from the scene. He allegedly climbed a six-foot fence and was found making his was down an embankment on the Cutchogue Waste Transfer Station property, Mr. Spota said.

A police officer followed after him and brought him back to the scene, according to the district attorney.

Mr. Romeo is due back in Southold Town Justice Court on Sept. 18.

Caption: A.D.A. John Scott Prudenti at Southold Town Justice Court on Thursday.

District Attorney Thomas Spota said the blood-alcohol content of the driver in Saturday’s fatal crash in Cutchogue was under the legal limit when it was taken after the crash.

However, the DA’s office said they are not planning to reduce the driver’s misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charge at this time.

At a roughly 15-minute press conference in Riverside Friday morning, the district attorney said investigators believe the BAC of Peconic resident Steven Romeo, 55, was “most likely” over the legal limit at the time of the crash.

However, according to the D.A., a blood test taken one hour and 40 minutes after the crash revealed that Mr. Romeo’s BAC was 0.066 — under the legal limit of 0.08.

On its own, Mr. Romeo’s BAC levels would be grounds for a driving while ability impaired by drugs or alcohol violation, which is not a criminal charge.

However, that was “only one factor” in the investigation, Mr. Spota said. According to a criminal complaint filed in town court, Mr. Romeo failed several sobriety tests at the scene.

An analysis of whether drugs were in Mr. Romeo’s system also hasn’t been completed, Mr. Spota added.

“We have an emerging, but not complete picture,” he said.

Mr. Romeo was driving a pickup westbound on Route 48 when he hit a limousine on Saturday afternoon. Four women were killed in the crash — three on the scene — and four more were hospitalized.

No breathlyzer test was given at the scene, Mr. Spota said, adding that first responders were first concerned with treating the victims.

“The priority here is trying to save lives,” he said. “In this case, we had eight lives [to save.] … They did the very, very best they could.”

Mr. Spota said it was “not unusual” for authorities to use a blood test — considered to be more accurate than a breathlyzer — to determine blood alcohol content during a serious accident.

Mr. Spota said that other factors such as Mr. Romeo’s height, weight, and what he ate that day would have affected how quickly alcohol left his system after the crash.

Mr. Romeo was charged with DWI on Sunday and arraigned from his hospital bed at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport. He pleaded not guilty.

An attorney representing Mr. Romeo appeared in Southold Town Justice Court on Thursday afternoon. Bail for the Peconic man was reduced from$500,000 cash or $1 million bond to $50,000 cash or $100,000 bond, with the consent of the prosecutor’s office.

As of Friday morning, Mr. Romeo was still being treated  for a broken nose, Mr. Spota said. It was not clear when he would be released.

Mr. Spota said Mr. Romeo will have to surrender his passport and cannot leave the state without notifying authorities as part of the conditions of his bail. Mr. Spota said he consented to lower bail “based in part on the emerging and clearer picture of what happened.”

According to the D.A., authorities are still working on a reconstruction of the fatal crash and have spoken to “significant” new witnesses as recently as Friday morning.

Mr. Spota said investigators are also analyzing both Mr. Romeo’s cell phone and the cell phones of the limo driver in the crash.

The driver, who was hospitalized after the crash, had one business and one personal cell phone, the D.A. said. He has been interviewed and is cooperating with authorities, Mr. Spota said; that included consenting to a blood work test.

Investigators have not yet spoken with the four women who survived the crash.

Mr. Spota repeated Friday morning that the limo driver’s U-turn on Route 48 near Depot Lane was legal. He said investigators haven’t determined whether the victims were wearing seatbelts in the limousine at the time of the crash, and are investigating the limo itself as part of the crash analysis.

psquire@timesreview.com

To the editor:

I am appalled at the treatment of Steven Romeo through this tragedy. Innocent until proven guilty? What a joke.

I’ve always known him to be very responsible. He is an honest, hardworking man who goes out of his way to help others. When the toxicology and eyewitness reports come we will all know who is responsible for the lives of these precious young women.

After days of distorted news hype and hostile assumptions, I hope that the truth prevails and justice is served. He already will be spending the rest of his life with the horrible nightmare that was perpetrated upon him. The shock had already begun when he “walked away from the scene.” Long ago, my family was involved in a head-on accident. Bystanders had to chase after my mother who had been sitting in the back seat with her children. Walking down the street with one shoe on, no coat, freezing in the morning snow and leaving her bleeding family behind. No, she wasn’t drunk or making a run for it.

I’ve spent many years on the road and assisted in several accidents with fatalities. Judging from where the vehicle was hit, I am almost certain who is at fault. One thing for sure is this type of accident was bound to happen. Too many times have I seen a group of cars blowing their horns at an oversized vehicle making a U-turn and cutting them off. Oncoming traffic doesn’t expect the turn — especially when they are coming from the express lane, not the turn lane. The negligent driving practices of some buses and limos are putting the public in serious danger. If you can’t make a U-turn from the turn lane with certainty, you should go around the block.

My prayers go out to all involved.

Robert Chilton, Peconic resident

Photo caption: Prosecutors speak with the media after Steve Romeo’s arraignment. (Credit: Vera Chinese)

A Mattituck man was arrested on a misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charged following a crash on Main Road in Cutchogue Saturday afternoon, Southold Town police said.

Miguel Catalan, 32, was stopped after he sideswiped a park vehicle at about 2:30 p.m., police said. He was found to be intoxicated and arrested.

Mr. Catalan was transported to police headquarters and held overnight for a Sunday morning arraignment.

A woman was injured Wednesday afternoon after she accidentally drove into the side of Renee’s Home Furnishings in Mattituck, Southold Town Police said.

Dorothy Fisher, 89, of Orient had just finished using the Capital One ATM when the accelerator “became stuck,” police said. Ms. Fisher spun out and smashed the car into the building about 1:10 p.m., according to a police report.

Ms. Fisher was taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center with a non-life threatening leg injury, police said. She was the only person in the vehicle.

Skid marks were visible at the ATM and several bricks in the building had collapsed, leaving a hole in the side of the wall. Workers are currently cleaning the area up.

The owner of Renee’s, Bill Gildersleeve, said he didn’t see the accident happen but was 20 feet away when the car barreled into the building.

“I thought [something] came right through the ceiling at first,” he said, describing a “plume of smoke” inside the store.

Mr. Gildersleeve said demolitions workers will have to take down the side of the building to repair it. He said a lot of furniture, lamps, and pictures were damaged in the crash.

“It’s a little bit of a warzone here … It’s the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Everyone was okay inside the building and that’s the most important thing.”

nsmith@timesreview.com

A Brooklyn man spending his honeymoon on the North Fork was killed in a car crash Wednesday morning after his vehicle swerved into the path of a Suffolk County Transit bus, Southold Town police said.

Jeremiah Grunblatt, 42, was driving west in a blue crossover SUV with his wife, Keturah, 39, on Route 25 over the LIRR bridge in Greenport when his vehicle collided head-on into the bus traveling eastbound, Southold Police Chief Martin Flatley said.

The crash occurred at around 11:50 a.m. and Mr. Grunblatt was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.

Ms. Grunblatt was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The bus driver, Luis Garnica, 50, of Hamptons Bays suffered a “severe leg injury in the crash,” officials said. Of the five bus passengers, one person was treated for “minor injuries,” police said.

Greenport and Southold first responders assisted in the rescue efforts, Mr. Flatley said, adding a Suffolk County police medevac couldn’t be called due to the weather.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

Mr. and Ms. Grunblatt met in 2011 and were married three days ago, according to their profile on the wedding registry site The Knot.

“The magic of the Internet brought us together, though we are often baffled at the fact that we didn’t somehow meet before we did,” the couple wrote. They both had also posted honeymoon photos to social media during their trip on the North Fork.

Ms. Grunblatt is an opera director and choreographer. Mr. Grunblatt was a craftsman and also built stage sets for opera performances.

The couple had recently collaborated on a show in Houston and were engaged for more than a year after Mr. Grunblatt proposed with a handmade wooden box.

clisinski@timesreview.com

More than 200 people have donated to an online fundraiser set up for the family of a Brooklyn man killed on his honeymoon in Greenport last week.

A GoFundMe page for Jeremiah Grunblatt — who died after the SUV he was driving collided with a Suffolk County Transit bus Wednesday — has raised more than $14,000 of its $20,000 goal as of Monday afternoon.

Mr. Grunblatt was on his honeymoon with his wife, Keturah, at the time of the crash. Ms. Grunblatt suffered injuries that weren’t life-threatening in the crash, Southold Town police said. The cause of the crash has not been released.

They had been married three days before the crash.

“The outpouring of love and support for Jeremiah, Keturah and family has been incredible,” said Keith Hamilton, a friend who set up the fundraiser. “It’s no surprise to me though, as they are special people.”

Two other people were injured in the accident: bus driver Luis Garnica, 50, of Hamptons Bays who suffered a “serious leg injury” and a passenger on the bus who was treated for a minor injury.

Mr. Grunblatt was a craftsman and also built stage sets for opera performances. Ms. Grunblatt is an opera director and choreographer. In an interview with the Daily News, Ms. Grunblatt’s mother, Catherine Stickann, said the newlyweds were “the perfect couple.”

psquire@timesreview.com

It was annoying to see the word drunk in your front-page caption describing the fatal accident (“Are our roads less safe today?” in the Oct. 8 issue). We all know there were circumstances yet to be proven before blaming any one individual.

As a service provider on the North Fork, I think I log enough miles on our roads to make knowledgeable observations. I believe Route 48 is one of the most dangerous roads in the nation, both by its nature and the drivers that use it, and I don’t blame only the transient ones.

Both ends of the four-lane pavements have inadequate warning signs and no painted arrows in the roadway. Couple that with 99 percent of the drivers in the right lane merging without signaling or giving way to traffic and you have accidents waiting to happen. Another 90 percent of our drivers never use the right lane, whether they are going the speed limit or not. I know it is not required to keep right in New York, but isn’t it courteous to do so?

All intersections on the four-lane section are disastrous and always have been. Why does a major accident have to occur before something is done?

Why is parking allowed on both sides of Main Road in Southold, especially in front of IGA where there’s a perfectly adequate parking lot? The intersection of Youngs Avenue and Main Road is the busiest in Southold, but people insist on blocking traffic with their open car doors rather than going into the lot.

Why do drivers use the turning lanes for passing lanes when a yellow line is not to be crossed unless turning?

Drive defensively, check your rearview mirror often and use common sense, especially when driving on the North Fork!

Mr. Guarriello is a Southold resident.

Editors note: The driver in the caption was referred to as an “alleged drunk driver.” He is currently facing a misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charge in relation to the crash.

A New York City man who crashed his 2006 Aston Martin convertible into a tree early Sunday morning in Southold was issued a summons for leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident, town police said.

Patrick Mizrahi, 53, was headed westbound on Soundview Avenue near Mount Beulah Avenue shortly after 3 a.m. when he lost control of his car, left the roadway and struck a tree, police said.

He then called a family member to take him to a local hospital for treatment of a shoulder and ankle injury, police said. Hospital staff reported the incident to police.

Excessive speed may have been a contributing factor in the crash, police said.

Route 48 is still an accident waiting to happen.

I agree with the letter stating the situation on Route 48 and Depot Lane is not improved.

The new light was a rush to judgment, a transparent Band-Aid that does nothing to improve a road that was designed to be an expressway in a rural community.

The planners obviously had no concept of traffic patterns here in Southold or anywhere else.

The speed limit is 55 miles per hour, the exact same as the Long Island Expressway. And what speed do the drivers reach on that also divided highway? Yes — 70 miles per hour on a normal basis, and much higher, as we all know.

There are numerous spaces with left turn areas at and between intersections all along Route 48, from its four-lane divided section to Youngs Avenue, where it once again recedes to a two-lane byway.

These turn lanes are inviting drivers to make a U-turn.

Realizing that U-turns on high-speed roads are dangerous, there are signs on the Long Island Expressway posted that say “NO U-TURN” at each cut in the divided roadway.

If the highway planners were serious about reducing accidents on Route 48 there would be none of these left turn lanes and at each intersection there would be “No U-Turn” signs.

However, at each intersection where there is a traffic light there should be a special left turn signal and an appropriate “No U-Turn” exception sign.

This may not stop horrid accidents as was the case recently, but these measures might make a difference.

The author is a Peconic resident.

A Riverhead man was charged with felony driving under the influence of drugs after crashing in Mattituck late Monday, injuring himself and a passenger, Southold Town police said.

According to a police report, 22-year-old Joshua Odell was the driver in a single-car accident at the intersection of Main Road and New Suffolk Avenue in Mattituck about 8:20 p.m. Police arrived on scene to find a female passenger from the car unconscious outside the vehicle with Mr. Odell “hovering over her,” according to the report.

Police said Mr. Odell admitted to an officer that he had used PCP and marijuana before driving the vehicle. He was charged with felony DWAI and felony aggravated unlicensed driving before being taken to Eastern Long Island Hospital for treatment of his injuries. He was ultimately released into police custody, according to the report.

The female passenger was taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead for treatment of “unknown injuries,” police said.

A Sayville man was arrested Saturday evening following a crash on Route 48 in Peconic that injured four, Southold Town police said in a press release. 

Richard Gordon, 68, was involved in a motor vehicle crash at the intersection of Route 48 and Peconic Lane at about 5 p.m., police said. He was arrested after it was determined he had been driving drunk.

Mr. Gordon was transported by a Southold Fire Department ambulance to Eastern Long Island Hospital where he was treated for minor injuries and released into police custody.

Three others involved in the crash were transported to ELIH by both the Southold and Cutchogue fire departments for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

No other details about the crash were immediately available.

A Southold man who struck a school bus carrying children and fled the scene of the accident Saturday was later arrested for driving without a license, town police said in a press release. 

Efrain Menjivar, 32, was driving eastbound on Route 48 near Depot Lane in Cutchogue when he struck the left rear bumper of the bus as he attempted to pass it, police said.

Mr. Mejivar left the scene of the crash and was found inside the vehicle at his home in Southold, according to the release.

Mr. Menjivar was charged with driving without a license and fleeing the scene of an accident, police said. He was later released on bail, the terms of which were not disclosed in the release.

A Greenport man driving without a license was arrested Monday morning after he crashed his vehicle into a house, Southold Town police said.

The 27-year-old was driving east on Route 48 when he reportedly swerved off the road while trying to avoid hitting another vehicle, officials said.

The driver’s car then slid off the roadway and crashed into a house and a “piece of equipment,” police said.

The driver drove away from the scene and was found soon after in his heavily damaged vehicle with a flat tire driving on its rim, officials said.

He was charged with two violations for leaving the scene of an accident with property damage and unlicensed driving, police said.

A Greenport man was arrested on a drunk driving charge after he was involved in a single car crash Saturday night, Southold Town police said. 

2Alfonso Boror, 30,  allegedly crashed his car shortly on Main Street in Greenport shortly before midnight.

He was charged with driving while intoxicated and held for a morning arraignment, police said.

A Cutchogue teen was arrested for driving under the influence of marijuana after he was involved in a single-vehicle crash on Skunk Lane Thursday, Southold Town police said. 

Erik Schwartz, 19, struck a telephone pole around 7:45 p.m. before his vehicle turned over, police said.

According to a police press release, Mr. Schwartz was arrested and transported to Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport by the Cutchogue Fire Department for treatment of minor injuries.

He was later released from the hospital and held overnight at Southold Town police headquarters for a Friday morning arraignment, police said.

A bicyclist was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital Wednesday after being involved in an accident with a pickup truck in Greenport, Southold Town police said.

Rosemary Getwillig, 84, of Greenport rode into the truck as it attempted to make a turn onto Moores Lane from the North Road at around noon Wednesday, according to police. She had been heading east when the accident occurred.

Police said Ms. Getwillig suffered a hand laceration and was experiencing difficulty breathing at the scene.

The driver of the truck was uninjured and no charges were filed in the incident, officials said.

Three people were sent to the hospital Sunday after they were involved in a car accident at the same intersection of last summer’s tragic limo crash in Cutchogue, according to a press release.

A 23-year-old Jamaica man was driving a 2005 Nissan westbound on Route 48 around 6 p.m. when his vehicle rear ended a 2013 Nissan that was slowing down for the changing traffic light at the intersection of Depot Lane, Southold Town police said.

The driver of the 2013 Nissan was a 19-year-old man also from Jamaica, police said.

Three passengers in the 2005 Nissan suffered minor injuries and were taken to Eastern Long Island Hospital for treatment, police said.

No one was charged in the incident, officials said.

A traffic light was installed at the intersection after four young women were killed and four more were injured July 18 when a limo driver attempted a U-turn as a pickup truck approached the intersection.

Photo: The new traffic lights at the Route 48 and Depot Lane intersection in September 2015. (Credit: Nicole Smith)

An elderly man was hospitalized with minor injuries after he drove into a parked Southold Town police car in Cutchogue Friday morning, authorities at the scene said.

The crash occurred just after 11:30 a.m. when the man, headed east on Main Road near Depot Lane, collided with the parked car. Police said the officer assigned to the car wasn’t inside at the time of the crash and wasn’t injured.

The driver was taken by Cutchogue firefighters to a local hospital for treatment. Police have closed Main Road while cleaning up the crash scene and are detouring motorists.