A CRASH CLAIM

Retired Bravest sues Suffolk over wife’s death

A retired FDNY firefighter who lost his wife during a fatal head-on crash in Westhampton is suing Suffolk County over the dangerous curve where the collision took place, the Daily News has learned.

Claude Kebbe, 69, is seeking $13 million for his wife Christine Ann Muldoon-Kebbe’s death on Montauk Highway near Summit Blvd. on Oct. 16.

Muldoon-Kebbe, 63, was driving east on the highway when motorist William Vogel, who was heading in the other direction, crossed over into her lane at a curve in the road.

Muldoon-Kebbe (photo) and Vogel, 89, who were both driving Hondas, hit each other head on. Medics rushed both of them to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, but they could not be saved.

The only one to survive the crash was Kebbe’s 4-year-old dog Cooper, a terrier and Brittany spaniel mix.

“He’s kind of lost, looking for her, looking for her, looking for her,” Kebbe told Newsday at the time of his wife’s death. “And that breaks my heart.”

Kebbe and his wife usually split their time between Astoria, Queens, and Remsenburg. During the coronavirus pandemic, however, the couple and their 14-year-old daughter were staying full time on Long Island when the fatal crash occurred.

Kebbe retired from the FDNY in 2010 after serving 26 years with the department. He retired out of Engine 313 in Little Neck, Queens.

Attorneys for the retired firefighter said Suffolk County officials knew the curved road was a dangerous blind intersection where several accidents have occurred over the years, but did little to protect motorists from it.

In a notice of claim acquired by The News, Kebbe accused the county of being “careless, reckless and negligent in failing to conduct an adequate study/audit of the accident area.” County officials also failed to “conduct a periodic review of the usage of the accident area in light of the frequency of accidents there,” the notice of claim states.

County officials had installed rumble strips and painted a double yellow line on the curve, but it was clearly not enough, Kebbe’s attorney said.

“(County officials) were obliged to consider the volume and type of traffic driving the roadway, the speeds of the vehicles and the incidents of cross-over crashes in the curve that killed Mrs. Kebbe,” attorney John Nash said. “The county’s choice to place a set of double yellow lines with rumble strips in the center of the curve obviously did not, and could not have prevented the cross-over tragedy that took two lives during the afternoon of October 16.”

An email to Suffolk County attorneys for comment was not immediately returned.