[July 05, 2008] 1 dead in E. Meadow chain-reaction crash Tweet (Newsday (Melville, NY) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 5--A Hempstead man died and a North Merrick man was seriously injured in a chain-reaction involving four cars and a traffic signal pole, Nassau police said. At 4:15 p.m. on July 4, Bahiyud-Deen Ahmad, 65, of Hempstead, rear-ended a 1999 Jeep while driving north on Merrick Avenue in East Meadow, police said. Three passengers in the Jeep were uninjured. But Ahmad's 1999 Oldsmobile then careered into the southbound lane, striking a 2005 Subaru at Prospect Avenue. The force of that collision shunted the Subaru into a 2005 Audi. Ahmad's Oldsmobile, meanwhile, drove off the road, striking a traffic signal pole and the passenger side of a gray Dodge SUV parked in a driveway at 788 Merrick Ave. Ahmad was pronounced dead by a staff physician at Nassau University Medical Center at 5:15 p.m. The two Audi passengers were uninjured, but the driver of the Subaru, Philip Manusama, 61, of North Merrick, was transported to Nassau County Medical Center with fractured pelvis, ribs and ankle. Manusama's condition is now "satisfactory stable," Nassau University spokeswoman Shelley Lotenberg said Saturday. Ahmad's family declined an autopsy on religious grounds, the Nassau University medical examiner's office said Saturday. Detectives said a health condition "may have contributed" to Ahmad's erratic driving." To see more of Newsday, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsday.com Copyright (c) 2008, Newsday, Melville, N.Y. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]