MORICHES, N.Y. — A car crash on Long Island has claimed the life of a Suffolk County police sergeant.

Suffolk police say Detective Sgt. Robert Reecks died just after 5:30 a.m. Saturday when his department-issued sedan veered off Sunrise Highway in Moriches and struck a concrete bridge support.

Reecks was off-duty at the time. The cause of the wreck was under investigation.

Reecks was 57. He joined the department in 1981 and rose to become commander of its bias-crimes unit in the late 1990s. He led that unit until a command shakeup in January.