Alec Baldwin crash: New details released by East Hampton Town police

Evasive action to avoid a sanitation truck ahead and "slippery and wet" storm-related pavement conditions led actor Alec Baldwin to crash his wife’s white 2023 Range Rover into a tree in East Hampton around noon during Monday's nor'easter, police said.

Baldwin, 67, and his brother and fellow actor, Stephen, 59, were in the SUV, heading back from the Hamptons International Film Festival, where the former "30 Rock" star serves as co-chair of the executive committee.

In an Instagram video posted late Monday, Alec Baldwin said he was cut off by a garbage truck "the size of a whale" — adding that while the Range Rover suffered extensive damage, neither he nor his brother, who both grew up in Massapequa, were injured.

In an emailed statement Tuesday to Newsday, East Hampton Town police, who responded to the crash scene, said: "At approximately 12:01 p.m. on Monday, October 13th, the EHTPD responded to a motor vehicle accident on State Route 27, Pantigo Road near Cross Highway. A white 2023 Range Rover, operated by Alec Baldwin, with passenger Stephen Baldwin, was found to have struck a tree on the Eastbound shoulder of the roadway while avoiding the turning action of a 2020 Mack commercial truck, registered to National Waste Services out of Bay Shore, NY.

"There were no injuries reported or summons issued and the contributing factors to the accident were found to be a reaction to an uninvolved vehicle and the slippery and wet roadway conditions," the statement said.

In his Instagram post, Alec Baldwin joked: "I hit a tree, a big fat tree," adding that despite the crash, he was "fine."

Video footage of the garbage truck's dashcam circulating on Instagram and obtained by Newsmax shows the sanitation truck turning onto State Route 27. Within 10 seconds of completing the turn, the truck slows down and comes to a full stop in the eastbound shoulder as the SUV Baldwin drove crashes through a mailbox before striking a tree.

Photographs showed the Range Rover, which Baldwin said belonged to his wife, Hilaria, with extensive front-end damage — smashed into that tree.

In his post, Baldwin also thanked the responding East Hampton Town police officer, whom he identified as Officer Ian Gerken.

"As nice as can be and as pleasant as can be about the whole thing," the Academy Award nominee said of Gerken in his post.

Police said the responding officer was not authorized to speak about the crash and was unavailable for an interview.

Police also said there would be no further investigation, with the incident considered to be "a routine traffic accident with no criminality involved."

Baldwin rose to fame with a string of movie roles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, among them: "The Hunt for Red October," "Beetlejuice" and "Glengarry Glen Ross." He later earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role in the 2003 romance-comedy "The Cooler."

Baldwin later won multiple Emmy and Golden Globe awards for his success on the NBC comedy "30 Rock," where he starred from 2006 to '13.

Baldwin had most recently made headlines for his legal troubles related to an accidental shooting on the set of the Western film "Rust" in 2021 that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Earlier this year, he appeared along with his wife and their seven children in the TLC reality series "The Baldwins."

The actor said his family was in California on Monday.

Newsday's Grant Parpan contributed to this story.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”