Glen Cove Road, as local residents know all too well, is often the site of car accidents. Last Monday night, a potentially fatal accident had a happy ending when the owner of a local business literally saved a woman from a car already on fire from a collision with a truck.

On Monday, July 1 at approximately 10:15 p.m., a 2001 Nissan Maxima driven by Rose Vidal of Baldwin hit a 1995 Nissan truck that was attempting to pull into the Dunkin Donuts lot on Glen Cove Road. According to eyewitnesses, the car spun around with the driver's foot apparently stuck to the accelerator pedal. As a result, the car hit a tree on Glen Cove Road. That impact caused the car to go up in flames. By then, the accident had drawn a large crowd of onlookers. Up to 50 people were now witnessing the ongoing accident.

Fortunately, one man came to the rescue of Ms. Vidal. Rino DiMaria, proprietor of JoAnne's Gourmet Pizza, jumped over a retaining wall and out onto Glen Cove Road. There, he climbed inside the car, pulled the seat belt and the air bag off the driver and then dragged her out of the car and across the street onto the sidewalk. There, Mr. DiMaria nursed Ms. Vidal with some cold water and ice. Police cars, ambulances, and personnel from the local fire companies soon arrived on the scene. The car, according to eyewitnesses was now literally up in smoke, before the fire was finally extinguished.

The driver, Mr. DiMaria said, was injured, but mostly in a state of shock. Mr. DiMaria did notice some physical injuries, including arm burns caused by the air bag and head wounds, which came when Ms. Vidal collided with a side window upon impact with the tree. The driver, he added, also had trouble breathing. And for a while, "she could hardly talk."

Paramedics soon came to take the driver away. Ms. Vidal was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn and treated for minor injuries, before being released. The truck driver, described in published reports only as a 21-year-old Glen Cove man and his passenger, were both uninjured. Nassau County police filed no charges against either of the drivers involved in the accident.

"People just panicked," Mr. DiMaria said, describing the scene. The day after the accident, The Roslyn News received several phone calls from local residents both praising Mr. DiMaria's courage and corroborating his account of the accident.

JoAnne's is located on 5 Glen Cove Road, near the busy intersection of Glen Cove and Northern Boulevard. Mr. DiMaria has been at this site for six months now. He also operates stores in Roslyn and Sea Cliff. JoAnne's, he said, is active in the community, giving, among other things, scholarships to local high school students. As with other eyewitnesses, he noted that the fire from the car could have damaged other businesses in the area, but that was insignificant when compared to the human tragedy the accident may have resulted in.