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3rd Victim Dies After Wrong-way Brookhaven Crash

A third victim died over the weekend following a wrong-way crash that killed two others in Brookhaven last week, Suffolk County police said.

Jonathan Valladares, 25, of Brentwood, was taken after the crash to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center, where he died Saturday, police said.

Valladares was a passenger in an Infiniti being driven eastbound in the westbound lanes of Sunrise Highway near exit 57 when the car crashed head-on into a westbound Chevrolet van at 4:05 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 27, police have said.

The driver of the Infiniti, 23-year-old Kevin Melgar of Brentwood, was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the van, 49-year-old Ozcan Ayyidiz of Mastic Beach, was taken to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in East Patchogue, where he was pronounced dead.

While investigators were on the scene, a street sweeper drove beyond the road closure and struck two occupied police cars that had emergency lights activated at the time, authorities said.

A highway patrol officer in one of the vehicles, who was identified only as a four-year veteran of the department, was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The driver of the street sweeper and a sergeant who was in the other police car were not injured.

Motor Carrier Safety Section officers inspected the street sweeper and issued violations to the driver.