2 Teens Dead In Crash In Melville

MELVILLE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A teenage boy and girl were killed early Saturday in a crash in Melville, Long Island.

As WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reported, police said the crash was caused by was two brothers acting recklessly – speeding on Walt Whitman Road in Melville.

Around 1:15 a.m. Saturday, Ray Vega, 18, was headed north on the road in a 1996 Honda at a high speed, when he tried to pass a 1999 Pontiac on the right. Vega's brother, Kevin, 19, was driving the Pontiac.

Ray Vega sideswiped his brother's car and lost control of the Honda. He struck the curb and then a tree in front of 1800 Walt Whitman Rd., Suffolk County police said.

The Honda was split into three.

Ray Vega and his passenger, Carmen Rivera-Gotay 17, were trapped in the vehicle and had to be extricated, police said.

Vega was pronounced dead at the scene by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's office, while Rivera-Gotay was pronounced dead after being taken to Plainview Hospital-North Shore. Both lived in Huntington Station.

Kevin Vega and his passenger Isaias Perez, 21, were not injured, police said.

"They were the best people I knew," Perez told Hall. "They really didn't deserve it."

Rivera-Gotay's mother was crestfallen.

"She is the light of my eye. We did everything together," she said. "We were like two peas in a pod."

The bark was sheared off the tree, and a speed limit sign was knocked down, as a result of the force of the crash.

The Melville incident was one of two fatal crashes in the Tri-State Area early Saturday. In Queens, two people were killed, and four others were injured, when a car went out of control and crashed violently on the Grand Central Parkway. Driver Hansraj Madosh, 20, has been hit with multiple felony charges and was allegedly intoxicated at the time of the crash.

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