Nassau County Police have arrested an Island Park man in connection with a blue and white “Cigarette” type speedboat that left the scene of an accident on Reynolds Channel at 7:15 Sunday evening.
Bennett M. Ragusa, age 59, of 212 Kingston Boulevard, Island Park has been arrested. He is being charged with New York State Navigation Law Leaving the Scene of an Accident Involving Serious Physical Injury.
Matthew Scully of Island Park, along with his wife Joann, their 13-year-old daughter and two of his daughter’s friends had been in Point Lookout and were heading back to Island Park when the speed boat hit his 18-foot vessel in the rear, ran up to the center console, then reversed and fled toward Oceanside.
“We were in a 5 mph zone off Long Beach High School when we were hit,” Scully said. “His boat was approximately 30-feet. He was right on top of my wife; she took the brunt of it.”
Scully said the driver of the speedboat “looked me right in the eye,” before he fled.
Scully was able to drive his boat back to Island Park where the Island Park Fire Department transported Joann Scully to a nearby hospital. She suffered several broken ribs, a fracture to her spine, contusions, burns, and cuts on her head, according to her husband.
“There was come paint left on my boat, cobalt blue, detectives took it for evidence,” Scully said. He added the bottom of the speedboat was clean and white, with no seaweed or barnacles. “That boat is kept out of the water, on a lift of something,” he said.