Monday, April 21, 2025
The sudden rise in deadly accidents on Long Island’s streets and highways is deeply alarming, and demands actions. Every seven minutes, a crash causing death, injury or significant property damage occurs on our roads. And our region currently leads the state in traffic fatalities: One in five deaths resulting from car crashes in New York happens on Long Island.
The failure to secure our roads has led to thousands of lives being cut short, families tragically ripped apart and a terrible void left in too many of our communities.
I wrote to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, calling for immediate action to keep Long Islanders safe.
In addition to a federal investigation into the surge of fatal crashes, I urged Duffy and the Department of Transportation to issue specific recommendations to Congress on additional funding or authority that the department needs to improve our roadways and increase safety for drivers and pedestrians.
I’m fighting for a comprehensive roadway safety strategy to encourage safer driving and create safer roads. This means giving our law enforcement agencies the tools and resources to police aggressive and unsafe driving, investing in infrastructure that puts safety first and keeping impaired drivers off our roads.
Unsafe driving has devastating consequences that we can and must prevent. Every day, our nation’s law enforcement officers work to prevent serious accidents on our roads. But strained budgets and workforce reductions have harmed their ability to conduct traffic stops and other forms of high-visibility traffic enforcement. Studies show that increasing high-visibility enforcement deters drivers from making reckless decisions that endanger others and makes our streets safer for all.
Additionally, I’m calling for infrastructure investments that prioritize safety, not speed. Area residents have long voiced safety concerns about the Southern State Parkway, Sunrise Highway and other routes, which account for a disproportionate share of roadway injuries and fatalities on Long Island. We should use proven safety countermeasures to keep pedestrians and cyclists safe on our roads, prevent roadway departures, and make intersections less deadly.
I’ll continue to advocate for these common-sense improvements. In Congress, I’m drafting legislation that incentivizes states and localities to build roundabouts, which make intersections safer. By introducing these measures into our infrastructure planning, we can significantly reduce roadway fatalities and injuries.
We must also take action to keep impaired drivers off the roads. Many road safety groups have endorsed lowering our drunken-driving limit to a blood alcohol content of .05 percent. There’s strong evidence that lowering this limit reduces the number of crashes and saves lives: After
Utah lowered its drunken-driving limit to .05 percent in 2018, fatal car crashes dropped by nearly 20 percent over the next calendar year. I support the push at the state level to bring this limit to New York, and I’m exploring federal options to make this the law of the land across the U.S.
We’ve lost far too many community members to fatal traffic accidents. It’s time for local, state and federal authorities to come together to improve our roadways and increase safety for drivers and pedestrians.
I’m proud to represent Long Island on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has authority over the nation’s highways and bridges. As Congress considers a new surface transit reauthorization bill this year, the committee will be a key player in negotiating this bill. I’ll continue to use my seat on T&I to advocate for our communities, make smart infrastructure investments and push for policies that keep drivers, passengers and pedestrians safe.
Laura A. Gillen represents the 4th Congressional District.
