Head-On Collision Near LIE Kills One, Driver Flees Scene

Sophia Hall / WCBS 880

A Queens bar owner was killed in a head-on collision on a service road near Exit 19 off the Long Island Expressway early this morning after a car going the wrong way struck his livery cab. According to the Daily News, the violent impact of the crash sent 37-year-old George Gibbons, owner of The Gibbons' Home, flying into the front seat of the Lincoln Town Car and onto the driver's lap. "I heard the boom—just boom, no tire," one nearby resident tells the Post. Police are still attempting to locate the driver of the 2002 Chrysler Sebring, who fled on foot, while its passenger was treated at the scene for head injuries and later charged with possession of marijuana.

The Post speaks to the registered owner of the car, Brooklyn resident Angela Kosoi, who said she lent the vehicle to a friend of a job interview. She declines to name who, but said, "I had no idea someone died. I leant it to them yesterday, and I thought nothing of it. I wish it was stolen. I wish it wasn't my car. I'm mortified."

Friends and loved ones have gathered at Gibbons' bar to pay their respects. Gibbons' brother, NYPD Officer Brendan Gibbons, told the paper that The Gibbons' Home "was his pride and joy. He doesn't drive, so he always takes these cabs. You'd think he'd be safer." A construction worker in the neighborhood said of Gibbons, "Everyone loves him, everyone looks at him with respect. He does a lot for the neighborhood. There's not a mean bone in his body. The neighborhood won't be the same now that he's gone."

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By Christopher Robbins in News on October 16, 2011 4:40 PM

Comments [rss]

luke_1

He doesn't drive so he's safer--except he sits in the back of cars without a seat belt (not that anyone wears seatbelts in a cab). Impeccable logic!

I wonder if the owner of the car opened the door with her arm in a cast and all black and blue. "Yeah, I lent it out just before someone drove into another car with it."

Dan

Are u seriously blaming the guy who died when some tard drove the wrong way and smashed into the car???

Unkle_Bob

The guy who died has to accept some of the blame. There's nothing that says blame has to be limited to just one person.

Dan

I'm pretty sure that the blame can lay entirely on the moron who drove, and obviously sped, the wrong way and plowed into the cab.

Unkle_Bob

No, it doesn't. The blame for the *car crash* lies entirely with the driver. The blame for the *death* lies, in part, with the passenger. He had a duty to secure himself, and he failed to do so.

Dan

You're an idiot

Unkle_Bob

Well, that's pretty much what I think of you too! So... call it even?

splicernyc

The owner of the car knows who she loaned the car to but is not saying? I'm assuming that means she's not telling the media not that she's keeping the info from the police.

mmheidelberger

I would assume so, or the police would probably come after her. Either way, criminal or civil, she'll be on the hook somehow.

Emmily_Litella

People suck. They really do.

whatidsay

Strage accident. The two drivers in a head-on collision survive, but the back-seat passenger does not. A sad reminder that you should always buckle up regardless of where you are in the car.