Mt. Sinai driver charged with DWI after crash injures passenger seriously

A late-night crash on Chelsea Drive left a 38-year-old Mt. Sinai woman seriously injured and sent a 35-year-old local driver to the hospital and then into custody on drunken-driving charges.

Suffolk County police said Timothy Neff was driving a 2018 Ford Fusion eastbound at a high rate of speed when it mounted the curb, struck a tree and overturned in front of 31 Chelsea Drive at about 3:10 a.m. on April 11. The force of the impact was severe enough that the car had to be worked around by emergency crews before both occupants could be removed.

Sixth Precinct officers and Emergency Service Section officers extricated Neff and his passenger, Stephanie Bortnowsky, from the wreckage. Bortnowsky was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital with serious physical injuries. Neff, who also was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, was later charged with Driving While Intoxicated.

Both Neff and Bortnowsky live in Mt. Sinai, turning the crash into a deeply local case for a community where residential roads are rarely seen as places for violent overnight collisions. Police said the vehicle was impounded for a safety check as detectives continued to examine the circumstances of the wreck, including speed and the roadway departure that sent the car onto the curb and into the tree.

The Suffolk County Police Department asked anyone with information about the crash to contact Sixth Squad detectives. The department’s release, authored by Erin Niemczyk, made clear that the collision was not a minor fender-bender but a serious road event that left one passenger badly hurt and a driver facing a criminal case. A follow-up local report described the Ford Fusion as badly damaged and wrapped around the tree, a detail that matched the scale of the response at the scene and the speed at which an ordinary ride home turned into an emergency on a Mt. Sinai street.