Nassau Police say a 37-year-old man is in critical condition after he lost control of his car and crashed into a tree early Sunday morning in Garden City.

Detectives say it happened on First Street near Cathedral Avenue shortly after 3:30 a.m.

"Sleeping in the middle of the night and suddenly there's a big bang outside, and I’m sorry to say this has happened before in a similar location, so we knew what it meant,” said Larry Bass, of Garden City.

Bass says when the crash woke him up, he went to his window to see what happened.

"Within less than half a minute, a Hempstead police car with its lights on was at the accident scene,” Bass said.

One neighbor on the block said that the crash was so loud and powerful that it felt like it shook his house. Bass told News 12 that the engine flew out of the car when it hit the tree.

“The engine block and the radiator had been thrown free from the vehicle on the side of the road,” Bass said.

Hempstead police told News 12 he was involved in an earlier disturbance on Terrace Avenue and fled the area before he crashed in Garden City.

Police had not said as of Sunday night what that earlier disturbance was that happened.

Bass says he's thankful no one else was hurt and that the tree protected homes on the block.