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Mostly Cloudy Pedestrian killed on deadly tpke
Measures to improve safety on notorious street could soon be under way
A 72-year-old man from Jamaica, Queens, was struck and killed by a sport utility vehicle while crossing Hempstead Turnpike in Elmont on Feb. 14 at 8:12 p.m.
According to the Nassau County Police Department’s 5th Precinct, the man was hit by a 2004 Toyota Highlander. The driver, a 68-year-old man, who was traveling west on Hempstead Turnpike, near the intersection of Sterling Road, stopped and called police after the incident, detectives said.
According to police, the victim, whose identity has not been released, suffered serious head trauma and a compound fracture of his right leg, and was transported to an area hospital by a Nassau County ambulance. He was pronounced dead early the next morning.
According to police, the incident involved no criminality. The vehicle was impounded for brake and safety inspections.
According to a recent study by Newsday, the 16-mile stretch of Hempstead Turnpike through Nassau County is the deadliest road on Long Island for pedestrians, with 8.21 fatalities for every 1 million vehicle-miles. Between 2005 and 2010, 32 people were killed — and more than 425 were injured — according to the analysis. The report cited a lack of medians or mid-road islands as a contributing factor.
A study released last February by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a nonprofit organization that focuses on reducing dependency on cars, named the stretch of the turnpike from Elmont to Farmingdale the most dangerous road in the tristate area. The campaign also found the turnpike to be the most deadly in 2009 and 2010.
According to the campaign’s 2011 “Most Dangerous Roads” report, between 2007 and 2009, more pedestrians — 12 — were killed along Hempstead Turnpike in accidents involving motorists than on any other tristate area road. Five more were killed there in 2010.
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s 2011 study concluded that “high travel speeds” (the turnpike’s speed limit is 40 mph) leave drivers little time to avoid pedestrians in the road. The group’s 2012 “Most Dangerous Roads” report is expected to be released in early March.
Responding to reports about the turnpike’s safety, state Department of Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald recently discussed implementing several short- and long-term measures, including closing median gaps that allow vehicles to cross the street, implementing more parking restrictions, installing more red-light cameras and implementing crosswalk-countdown timers.
On Feb. 16, Sen. Charles Schumer said that he would add an amendment to a transportation-funding bill requiring state officials to direct federal highway money to roads that have been deemed dangerous, such as Hempstead Turnpike. Schumer originally introduced the bill, along with Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat of Arkansas, to help police departments nationwide obtain tools and training necessary to catch more drivers operating under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
