MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- A Long Island man fled a traffic stop Thursday evening—with an officer standing on the running board of his van, Nassau County police said Friday.
Dennis Zvonik, 43, was driving with a suspended license and had an active bench warrant out of Nassau when officers spotted his white Ford Econoline van speeding east on Sunrise Highway, near Louden Avenue, in Massapequa around 7:45 p.m., according to police.
Officers pulled him over and told him to place the van in park. When he ignored the demand, an officer stepped on the running board and reached through the open window to tried to put the vehicle in park.
That's when Zvonik "stepped on the gas and drove away with the officer still standing on the running board," police said.
Still on the running board of the moving van, the officer told Zvonik to stop the vehicle, but he again disregarded orders and continued driving, according to cops.
He then violated multiple traffic laws, left the roadway and crashed into a fence at Clocks Boulevard, where he tried to flee through the passenger door and "violently and actively" resisted arrest as cops surrounded him, police said.
The injured officer was taken to a hospital for minor abrasions, contusions and lacerations, while Zvonik was hospitalized for an evaluation.
A woman and boy who were in the van at the time were not injured.
Zvonik, of Bay Shore, faces charges of second-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and multiple vehicle and traffic law violations.
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