Driver seriously injured in Sunrise Highway crash in Bayport

This story was updated at 7:25 p.m. to reflect the identities of the motorists, provide by police, and the seriousness of their injuries.

A motorist was seriously injured in a Tuesday afternoon crash on Sunrise Highway in Bayport that snarled eastbound traffic for hours, police and drivers said.

The single-vehicle wreck happened at 1:14 p.m. on the eastbound side of the highway near the off-ramp for Waverly Avenue, according to police.

Police said a 2022 BMW driven by Mario Auer, 25, of Shirley was heading east on the highway, just west of Nicolls Road, when he lost control of the car, struck the center median and overturned about 1:10 p.m.

Auer and his passenger Caitlyn Rose Lovelock, 28, of Mastic Beach were ejected from the vehicle, police said.

Lovelock was taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Suffolk in Patchogue, with
minor injuries. Auer, 25, of Shirley, went by ambulance to Stony Brook University Hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Passersby described seeing the smashed black BMW sedan on the median.

The crash closed the eastbound lanes at one point and slowed traffic for hours on the highway between Bohemia and the west end of Patchogue, said witnesses, describing the scene.

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