17-year-old Hasan Suleman killed after colliding with NICE bus on Long Island
OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. -- A teenage driver was killed Wednesday after colliding with a transit bus amid slick road conditions on Long Island.
It was a five-minute drive from high school to home in Old Westbury, but the 17-year-old never made it.
"He was a wonderful child. He was our sweetheart," one relative said.
Hasan Suleman was a top honors student at the Wheatley School, narrowing his choices among the finest colleges.
"The whole family is doctors, so he was convinced to be a doctor," a relative said.
Hasan had just left the high school in Old Westbury around 3 p.m. when his SUV crossed the median on Glen Cove Road and collided head-on with a Nassau Inter-County Express bus.
The bus driver suffered minor injuries, but Hasan's life could not be saved.
"This is a family that's been with us for many years. He was the youngest of three to go through our systems," said Mark Kamberg, president of the East Williston Board of Education.
"The principal and teachers were here last night. They had such nice words to say about him," said Lyla Khan, the victim's cousin. "We know he must have been a light everywhere."
Police say it's too early to have a definitive cause of the crash, but it's never too late to have discussions with teens about defensive driving skills.
Earl Schleicher, of Bell Auto School, has been teaching teens to drive for 30 years.
"The weather conditions were not good. The teen drivers a lot of times don't recognize or they underestimate certain situations that can be dangerous," he said.
He says inexperience, weather, speed, distractions and drowsiness are often causes of crashes.
A somber feeling has settled over Hasan's school.
"We are very lucky here on Long Island because we are surrounded by such incredible school districts. They all offered their own crisis team, their own social workers, their own school psychologists if we needed additional services," Kamberg said.
The extended Suleman family had just returned from a celebratory two weeks together.
"We went for his older brother's wedding ... back home, our country, Pakistan," said Shahid Suleman, Hasan's uncle.
More than 150 friends and family gathered in the Suleman home, offering comfort and prayers for a young life lost.