Oceanside man killed on Austin Boulevard

An Oceanside man was struck and killed by a car at the intersection of Austin Boulevard and Empire Boulevard in Island Park on Saturday.

According to police, Michael Fenwick, 33, of Oceanside, was walking in the northbound lanes of Austin Boulevard at around 8:30 p.m. when he was hit by a black 2008 BMW driven by an unidentified 31-year-old man.

The Nassau County Police Department transported Fenwick, who suffered severe head trauma, to South Nassau Communities Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:58 p.m. According to police, there was no apparent criminality involved in the accident, but the car has been impounded for a brake and safety inspection.

Fenwick’s death is the latest incident on a road that has become notorious among Island Park residents for its danger. “That road is horrible,” said Island Park Mayor James Ruzicka. “There’s no doubt about it. You hear of a fatality every year.”

Ruzicka, a member of the Island Park Fire Department, said that responses to accidents on Austin Boulevard were commonplace for firefighters. “In the Fire Department, we always have these types of accidents there,” he said. “And usually they’re serious. I think we [had] about 70 accidents on that road last year.”

Island Park recently played host to a fundraiser in memory of Mark Dejak, who was killed in a motorcycle accident on Austin Boulevard a few years ago. From January 1998 to June 2008, the NCPD recorded 11 fatalities on the road. In a six-month period in 1998 there were 77 recorded accidents. The road, which splits with Long Beach Road after crossing into Island Park from the north and rejoins it at the Long Beach Bridge, is only about a mile and a half long.

Since 2008, the Island Park Civic Association has been trying to get a median installed on the boulevard. The idea was inspired by the recently completed median on Lido Boulevard in Lido Beach. Workers contracted by Nassau County are completing a traffic study of the road, and will present the findings to the public in November.

“Everybody’s got some story,” Patti Ambrosia, head of the Civic Association’s Austin Boulevard Committee, said of the road. “Whether it was when we were kids or yesterday.” Ambrosia said that she witnessed an accident on Austin Boulevard just a month ago.

She said she believes that they key to improving safety on the road, in addition to a median, is to change the timing of the traffic lights so they are more often red, and to increase police presence on the road. “[In] Malverne you know to go 30 [miles per hour],” Ambrosia said. “In Island Park everybody’s doing 60, and if you’re doing 50, you’re going too slow and people are honking at you. And the speed limit is 40.”