Bravest in fatal crash hit with DWI

An off-duty FDNY firefighter who killed a Queens public high school teacher in a wrong-way crash was drunk behind the wheel, New York State Police said Monday.

Firefighter Joseph Norris, 38, has been charged with driving while intoxicated.

Norris was driving his 2008 Chevrolet Colorado the wrong way on Sunken Meadow Parkway near Smithtown, L.I., when he crashed head-on into a 2007 Mazda CX7 about 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20.

The Mazda driver, Anthony Mariano, 44 (photo), died at the scene. He was picking up pizza for his fiancée when he was killed.

Norris, who lives in Babylon, was rushed in critical condition to Southside Hospital, authorities said. He could lose both legs.

Mariano, a social studies teacher for 17 years at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside, was set to be married in July, but he and fiancée Christie Azzolini, 41, pushed back the wedding to next summer because of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Monday, Azzolini said she suspected Norris was drunk when she first learned of the crash.

“When you’re driving the wrong way on the parkway — I don’t think we’re too surprised by this. It seems like this happens far too often in New York, people getting on the road the wrong way,” she said. “I think we’re just trying to wrap our arms around everything.”

Relatives said Mariano was always a cautious driver.

The victim’s twin brother, Matthew Mariano, lauded the victim as selfless, saying he always put his students “front and center.”

“He wasn’t telling them what to do,” the brother said. “He was instilling the knowledge that allowed them to become the people they needed to be. That’s how he led his life. It wasn’t about him.”