Quogue Riverhead Road, Town of Southampton · Saturday, November 29, 2025, about 7:46 p.m.
A 22-year-old Riverhead man has been indicted on three counts of aggravated vehicular assault and other charges after prosecutors say he drove drunk across the double yellow line on Quogue Riverhead Road, causing a crash that injured five people, two of them seriously.
What prosecutors say happened
According to the Suffolk County District Attorney, Erik Yat Velasquez was driving a 2015 Jeep north on Quogue Riverhead Road at high speed when he crossed the double yellow line, sideswiped one car, and then hit a second car head-on. The driver of the second car suffered a broken collarbone and a punctured lung. The passenger suffered a broken arm, internal bleeding, and a serious head injury requiring multiple surgeries, and has lost vision in one eye. The two people in the first car and his own passenger were also treated.
Officers saw signs of intoxication, and he was arrested by the Southampton Town Police Department, with the State Police assisting in the investigation.
The charges
On February 4, 2026, he was arraigned in County Court on an indictment charging three counts of aggravated vehicular assault (class C felonies), two counts of second-degree assault, three counts of first-degree vehicular assault, two counts of second-degree vehicular assault, three counts of third-degree assault, aggravated DWI, DWI and reckless driving. He was placed on supervised release and his license was suspended. The top count carries up to 5 to 15 years.
What those charges mean
Vehicular assault is the injury counterpart of vehicular manslaughter: impaired driving that causes serious physical injury. It becomes aggravated vehicular assault, a class C felony, when the driving was reckless and there is an aggravating factor, such as a BAC of .18 or higher or serious injuries to more than one person. Prosecutors allege reckless driving across the center line and two seriously injured victims. The aggravated DWI count indicates they are also alleging a BAC of .18 or higher.
"Serious physical injury" is a legal term, not a description. It means injury that creates a substantial risk of death or causes serious and lasting disfigurement or impairment, and whether each injury meets that definition can be contested with the medical records.
Where the case stands
We found no public report of a plea or verdict as of September 2026. Mr. Yat Velasquez is presumed innocent.
Related: felony DWI · aggravated DWI
This article is drawn from public court filings, official releases and news reports, and is provided for general information only. A charge is an accusation, not proof of guilt. Every person is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. Nothing here predicts the outcome of any other case, and nothing here is legal advice.