By:Laura Lane
On July 30, a truck driver traveling west on Sunrise, near the Bellmore-Wantagh border, lost control and veered into the eastbound lanes, killing a 29-year-old man. A day later, in Merrick, Elaine Singer, an 80-year-old Uniondale woman who was a passenger in a car her husband was driving, was killed as he attempted to turn left from Sunrise onto Hewlett Avenue.
The accidents were both so serious that police shut down sections of the road in both areas for hours. As serious as they were, however, some people didn't seem surprised. "We call Sunrise Highway 'Blood Alley,'" said Barry Fox, president of the Merrick Park Home Owners Association. "We've talked about this to politicians and the police, and made many suggestions, but they wouldn't agree to any of them."
Fox and other civic leaders believe that myriad factors make for unsafe traffic conditions on Sunrise Highway, one of the most heavily trafficked roads in Nassau County.
The absence of medians separating east- and westbound traffic makes it easy for cars veering out of control to cross into oncoming traffic, as happened in the July 30 accident, said civic leader Richard Schary. "I'm scared to death to drive in the left lane on Sunrise Highway," Schary said. "There is nothing stopping cars from [crossing over] in most sections."
Commercial trucks commonly drive in Sunrise's left lane, a violation on any road where there are more than two lanes, Schary said. "The trucks in the left lane are absolutely devastating," he said. "They shouldn't be in the left lane."
The trucks also obstruct vision, making it hard for pedestrians to see behind them or for drivers to see past them, he said.
More than three years ago, there was a push to improve traffic safety conditions on the highway. Fox's civic group requested that the state Department of Transportation make right-turn-on-red restrictions on Hewlett Avenue, install left-turn arrows at the corners of Sunrise and Hewlett and Merrick avenues, and attach cameras to traffic lights to deter speeding. The group also suggested reducing the speed limit, which is currently 45 mph eastbound and 55 mph westbound.
The DOT conducted a study in July 2001 to consider the group's suggestions. It included a speed study, pedestrian counts and accident analysis, among other things. Utilizing data from the state Department of Motor Vehicles, it reported that between January 1997 and June 2000 there were 73 accidents on Sunrise.
After analyzing them, the DOT concluded that there was no pattern to the accidents that could be corrected with the installation of left-turn arrows at either Hewlett or Merrick Avenue.
State Assemblyman David McDonough (R-Merrick) has been concerned with traffic safety on Sunrise dating back to when he was president of the Merrick Chamber of Commerce. He said he, too, pushed for the installation of left-turn arrows, but was unsuccessful. "I spoke to the DOT, and they said if we had the arrows, traffic would be unbelievable on Sunrise Highway," McDonough said. "We have such crowded traffic conditions on Long Island. I'd like to see the speed limit reduced."
In the 2001 study, the DOT found that 85 percent of the drivers on Sunrise were speeding as they traveled east or west. "In that study, they found that 60,000 cars use that street a day, and on the 45-mile-per-hour side of Sunrise Highway, 15 percent are going higher than 53 to 54 miles per hour," Fox said. "That's 9,000 cars a day. And westbound, where it's 55 miles per hour, 9,000 cars are going at least 59 miles per hour." Fox added that he couldn't understand why the findings didn't warrant a reduced speed limit.
The DOT concluded, however, "We don't feel a reduction of the speed limit on [Sunrise Highway] is appropriate at this time."
"Sunrise Highway is a state-owned road," said McDonough, who sits on the Assembly's Transportation Committee. "A change of the speed limit would have to be approved, and a decision of cost would be decided, too. I think Sunrise Highway is crowded, but if they had a more controlled speed limit which was enforced, people would follow the speed and traffic would flow nicely."
The Merrick Park Home Owners Association's request for a restriction on right turns on red at Hewlett and Merrick avenues was also nixed. "Our field observations and all movement counts showed heavy traffic movements in all four directions," the DOT noted in its report. "Therefore, restricting right turns on red would increase motorists' delay and create a back-up of vehicles in the through lane."
Neither James Sokol nor Julio Ortiz, the drivers on the other end of the two recent fatal accidents, has been arrested or charged with a crime. Police are still investigating the accidents. Fox believes that if cameras had been installed at the corner where the Merrick accident took place, police would already know how it unfolded.
He cited the fatal accident on Aug. 10, 2001, in which Dustin Freda, 14, was killed as he was crossing Sunrise to Merrick Avenue. "This study came out a few months before Dustin was killed, and they still don't know who hit him," Fox said. "If the cameras had been in place, we would have known who killed him."
