Riverhead Teen Turns Herself In After Hit-and-Run

A Riverhead teen came forward four days after she allegedly hit a Southampton Town Police Traffic Control Officer, injuring him, and then fled last week.

Police said the 18-year-old was behind the wheel of a car on Sept. 16 at about 2:45 p.m. when she stopped at a crosswalk on Montauk Highway in front of Bridgehampton School to pick up two students who had just finished the day at the school. That’s when police said the girl got into a verbal altercation with a third person who was standing on the sidewalk.

The traffic control officer, a 28-year-old man, ordered the girl to pull her vehicle over to a safe portion of the road while he was still attending to students crossing the highway.

Police said she ignored his order and attempted to swerve around him by going west in the eastbound lane on Montauk Highway. She allegedly struck the officer in the back of the head with her side-view mirror and ran over his foot as she sped past.

The Bridgehampton Fire Department ambulance took the officer, whose name was withheld by police, to Southampton Hospital for treatment of his injuries.

Police said the young woman turned herself in at police headquarters in Hampton Bays on Sept. 20 at around 5:30 p.m. She is being charged with leaving the scene of an accident, a misdemeanor.