Police searching for driver in fatal hit-and-run
BY EMERSON CLARRIDGE
[email protected]
July 7, 2007, 10:24 PM EDT
Nassau police Saturday were searching for a gold Honda Accord with major front-end damage that witnesses said mowed down a respected physician as he crossed busy Mineola Avenue in Roslyn Heights, on his way to pick up his family's supper from their favorite pizzeria.
Jeffrey Siegel, 48, a pulmonary specialist and attending physician at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, had been golfing Friday with a friend and was on his way to Attilio's Pizzeria at the corner of Mineola Avenue and Elm Street when he was struck at 8:13 p.m.
Despite emergency workers' unflagging efforts for more than an hour, he was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:21 p.m., police said.
The male driver whose vehicle hit Siegel sped away, police said, but witnesses spotted part of the license plate -- the letters DYP or DYB.
Outside the Old Westbury home Siegel shared with his wife and three daughters, a friend speaking for the family called for the driver to turn himself in.
"It's homicide. Somebody has to pay," said Cindi Berger, 45. "He was a devoted husband and father, and his family was his passion."
Siegel, who also had a practice in Lake Success, had lived in Old Westbury with his wife, Louise Spadaro, 46, a cardiologist, and daughters for about four years, Berger said. He was golfing Friday with a friend at Harbor Links Golf Course in Port Washington, she said.
Friday night, Spadaro called the pizzeria to place an order about 8 p.m., said employee Jessica Gute, 19, who took the call. Spadaro called again an hour later when her husband had not come home.
"Did Jeff ever pick up his food?" Gute recalled Spadaro asking.
Gute told Spadaro that her husband had not arrived. She said she never imagined Siegel, a regular customer, was the victim of the hit-and-run that caused closure of Mineola Avenue.
Pizzeria worker Joe Renny, 32, said the family has placed orders at Attilio's 10 times this year. Friday's order was the same as always: a cheese pizza, a house salad and a small order of penne pasta with marinara sauce.
The street is lined with many shops and restaurants and its four lanes often are congested with traffic. On weekend evenings, residents said, the block becomes something of a minefield for pedestrians.
People walking near the accident scene Saturday said the road is particularly clogged on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights because of people patronizing restaurants there and the lack of parking on the avenue.
"This is a horrible, horrible intersection," said Cecile Valentine, 50, adding that the traffic signal at Elm Street seems too short in duration for pedestrians to safely cross Mineola Avenue.
The block where Siegel was struck, between Willow and Elm streets, is particularly busy from 5 to 9 p.m., she said. "It's not the trucks, it's the cars," she said.
Valentine was walking with friend Emily Kron, 49, who said she had seen flashing lights from emergency vehicles and crime scene tape blocking the street Friday night. "I knew that something absolutely horrendous happened," Kron said.
Joseph, 45, who works in the area and would not give his last name, said, "It's just there are very few places to cross the street. You're playing chicken all the time."
