This is the original News article as it
appeared in Newsday on February 20, 1990
Medic Killed by Car at Crash
Scene
By Bill Van Haintze
A volunteer firefighter and medic team member was struck and
fatally injured by a hit-and-run vehicle as she was walking back
to her car after assisting at an auto accident yesterday morning
in Port Washington, police said.
Ingrid Sowle, 52, of Port Washington
died at a local hospital about an hour after the accident. An
off-duty Port Washington police officer, who was at the accident
scene, pursued and arrested a Seaford man minutes after the
crash, according to Det. Richard Brusa of the Nassau County
Homicide Squad. Arrested was Michael Giovannotto, 38, of 2376
Willoughby Ave., Seaford. He was charged with leaving the scene
of a fatality, driving while intoxicated, and driving with a
suspended license.
Sowle was struck at 1:25 a.m. at Roslyn West Shore Drive,
just north of the entrance to Hempstead Harbor Beach Park,
police said. She had responded to the scene of an auto accident
that occurred at about 1 a.m. and was walking back to her car,
which was parked along Roslyn West Shore Drive, when she was
struck by a southbound car, Brusa said. The impact threw the
firefighter about 15 feet into one of several other cars owned
by firefighters that were parked on the roadside.
Sowle was taken to North Shore University Hospital in
Manhasset, where she was pronounced dead of severe body trauma
at 2:14 a.m. Sowle was taken to the hospital in the same
ambulance with the accident victim she had come to help -
Clemintina Ianniello, 24, of Roslyn Heights. She had been
southbound alone in her car, had lost control and hit a tree at
1:05 a.m. She suffered minor facial injuries, police said.
Off-duty Port Washington police Officer Charles Kruithoff, who
had stopped to assist at the accident scene, and was almost
struck himself, chased the fleeing car in his vehicle and caught
it at Willis Avenue and the north service road of the Long
Island Expressway in Roslyn Heights at 1:35 a.m., Brusa said.
Police said the suspect's car had a flat tire and had pulled
into a service station.
Sowle's supervisor in the Port Washington Fire Department
Medic Company, Edward Oldack, president of the unit, said, "She
took a lot of pride in her work. She enjoyed helping people.
"When she joined the department a little over a year ago, she
wrote on her application under reason for joining, `To be of
service and assistance to the community,' " he said.
Port Washington Fire Chief Peter Zwerlein said Sowle was one
of about 30 women in the 270-member department. Zwerlein said
plans for departmental services would be arranged following a
conference with family members.
Copyright 1990, Newsday Inc.
Bill Van Haintze, Medic Killed by Car at Crash Scene.,
02-20-1990, pp 21.
This is the original News article as it appeared in
Newsday on February 23, 1990
Friends Remember Medic's
Generosity
By Maureen Fan and Michele O'Keefe
The last words Ingrid Sowle
said to fellow Port Washington firefighter Linda Popeleski were,
"I'll see you at the next call."
But at the next call, an auto accident on Roslyn West Shore
Drive in Port Washington early Monday, Sowle, 52, was struck and
fatally injured by a hit-and-run driver, and Popeleski could
only hold Sowle's hand and try to comfort her.
Before a formal memorial service scheduled to be held last
night at the department's Flower Hill Hose Co., Popeleski and
her colleagues remembered Sowle as a generous co-worker who
loved to listen to Kenny Rogers and Waylon Jennings, who raised
poodles as a hobby and who talked fondly about her children,
Ingrid Debbie, 31, Renee, 30, and Michael, 29.
Sowle's family was too upset to be interviewed yesterday.
"After the Avianca crash, after the briefing I went through, I
was kind of down and out," Popeleski said. "Ingrid came over,
arms out, with a big bear hug. `I was so worried about you,' she
said.
"She adored children. I've had dogs from her for many years;
she would give me the dogs," Popeleski said. "One of my dogs got
hit by a car, and she brought over a new puppy all groomed, with
bows in its hair. My son was teary eyed."
As Sowle waited for calls at the department's Fire Medic Co.
headquarters on Port Washington Boulevard, she would watch
cartoons and knit sweaters and make potholders - about two dozen
potholders in the past few weeks. She earned money waitressing
and babysitting and had joined the department last February. She
wanted to be an emergency medical technician.
She was artistic, her co-workers said, arranging fruit trays
for parties and styling women firefighters' hair for parades.
Sowle also was an assistant to Popeleski, the company steward
who prepared a meal for the firefighters after their monthly
meetings. "She was the best," Popeleski said. "She loved
cooking. She sat there peeling potatoes for fifty-five people
once. She insisted they had to be fresh potatoes. She was very
good with desserts. Cool Whip cakes, lemon meringue pies, petit
fours, and all by hand."
Popeleski was a student at Port Washington High School in the
early 1970s when she met Sowle, a waitress at the Port
Washington Clubhouse restaurant. Clubhouse owner Larry Rabago
said Sowle worked for him for about two years and then went to
work at another local restaurant, Jimmy's Backyard.
"She was very lovely, she got along with everybody. She had a
kind word for everyone," he said yesterday.
Divorced, Sowle reared her children by herself and put them
all through college, department chaplain Thomas Tobin said.
Sowle was born in Berlin in 1937 and grew up in war-torn
Germany. When she was 16, she came to the United States with her
mother and an aunt.
Tobin said Sowle's brother, Ingo Kurth, told about how as
children during World War II, he and his sister were taught how
to fold their clothes in a particular manner and how to dress in
the dark in case they needed to evacuate. Food was so scarce,
they ate plants, Tobin said.
"Most people who endure what she and her family endured
probably would have sheltered themselves from outside
intervention," Tobin said. "And yet at age fifty-two, she was a
fire medic. She wanted to be of assistance to the community."
Only 15 months ago, another firefighter died in the line of
duty. Lt. Robert H. Dayton Jr., 28, a New York City firefighter
and Port Washington volunteer, died of smoke inhalation while
fighting an apartment-complex fire in Port Washington.
Tobin said he hoped his eulogy would stress Sowle's
selflessness and love of life as a "boost" to the rest of the
department. "We of the fire service acknowledge, if not accept,
the possibility of experiencing a traumatic injury or violent
death as being part of the territory," he said, reading from his
prepared speech. "But we seldom, if ever, attach such danger to
those who minister to the sick and injured . . . why should such
a gentle woman be the victim of violence?"
Meanwhile, the case against the man charged in connection
with Sowle's death is proceeding.
Sowle was struck by a passing car at 1:25 a.m. as she
returned to her car on Roslyn West Shore Drive after responding
to an auto accident. She was taken by ambulance to North Shore
University Hospital in Manhasset, and pronounced dead at 2:14
a.m. of severe body trauma.
Charles Kruithoff, an off-duty Port Washington police officer
who also stopped for the auto accident, saw what happened and
chased the driver in his car to a service station where the
driver stopped because of a flat tire.
The driver, Michael Giovannotto, 38, was arrested and charged
with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, driving while
intoxicated and driving with a suspended license. The Seaford
resident is being held at Nassau County jail in East Meadow in
lieu of $10,000 bail, pending an appearance before a grand jury.
He is being represented by an attorney at the Federal
Defender's Unit of the Legal Aid Society in Westbury. The
attorney could not be reached for comment yesterday.
In 1985, Giovannotto pleaded guilty to driving while
impaired. His license was suspended, and he was fined $350.
The state Motor Vehicles Department took away Giovannotto's
driver's license in 1987 when he failed to answer two summonses.
Although he had no license when arrested Monday, police charged
him with driving with a suspended license because the two
offenses are classified the same way under state law, officials
said. A funeral mass for Sowle was to be said today at 9:30 a.m.
at Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church in Manorhaven.
Interment was to follow at Nassau Knolls Cemetery.
Copyright 1990, Newsday Inc.
Maureen Fan, Michele O'Keefe, Friends Remember Medic's
Generosity., 02-23-1990, pp 20 |