By JOSEPH KELLARD
No doubt, these traffic-related concerns are on the minds of many residents who share the roads each day with thousands of motorists and pedestrians throughout their community. From parents with children out on the roads, whether riding their bikes or getting on or off school buses, to people who have to work within traffic, such as crossing guards and sanitation workers, these are everyday concerns for most residents.
Often what sparks and sustains these concerns are the accidents that occur in Oceanside, some of which have involved fatalities in recent years.
High incidents of accidents
Among the accidents in Oceanside over the past year were a drag racer killing an innocent man and himself along Lawson Blvd., a speeding motorcycle driver who was killed by slamming into and overturning a car along the same thoroughfare, a man veering a mid-sized furniture truck into Nathan's storefront, drunk and sober motorists barreling through the Oceanside Triangle, a driver crashing into a parked sanitation truck after workers lunged from his errant path, and a high school student flipping his car across two properties along Marlborough Rd.
Nassau County Police statistics indicate that the intersection of Mott St. and Long Beach Rd. in Oceanside had the second highest number of accidents in the Fourth Precincts coverage area in 2000-01, with 43 reported. This intersection was behind the Penninsula Ave. and Mill Rd. in Hewlett, which had 49 accidents, and before Pennisula Ave. and Branch Blvd. in Cedarhurst, a two-cornered intersection, which had 14. More recently, between May 14 to July 8, there were seven accidents at Mott St. and Long Beach Rd.
(The Fourth Precinct covers Oceanside, Island Park, East Rockaway, Hewlett, Woodmere, Lawrence, Cedarhurst, Inwood, Atlantic Beach, Point Lookout, Lido Beach, and others sections in and around these areas.)
In assessing such statistics, however, the volume of traffic in these areas is highly relevant, but such information is not available, according to police.
The Mott St. and Long Beach Rd. intersection experiences a high volume of traffic, and while some may consider the 43 reported accidents as comparatively low, it nevertheless has the distinction of being among the top accident-ridden spots in the precinct.
Passed School Buses and Operation Safe Stop
At the last town hall meeting in May, the area around the Mott St. and Long Beach Rd. intersection was raised in another traffic-related issue that is undoubtedly on the minds of many parents. Resident Alan Perlmutter, who attended that meeting, questioned Inspector George Gudmundsen, of the Fourth Precinct, about enforcing the law that prohibits drivers on both sides of the street to pass stationary school buses either picking up or dropping off children.
Perlmutter said he was driving eastbound on Mott St. one afternoon and a school bus heading in the opposite direction (toward Long Beach Rd.) was pulled over and had its stop sign drawn out and red lights flashing. While he and cars on the bus's side had stopped, about 30 or 40 drivers behind him kept going, some of whom honked at him, he claimed.
"I called the police and they basically told me that they were too busy to put a cop there or do anything other than alert the officers in the area. And I wasn't very happy with that answer. And I don't want to be the one who says people have to do their jobs, but that's what they get paid for," Perlmutter told the Herald. He suggested that if police stationed an officer at that spot for one month and ticketed motorists who passed the bus, "people will catch on."
Gudmundsen said he told Perlmutter at the meeting that police had targeted that location for months and had written a number of tickets there, but that off the top of his head he couldn't say how many were for that particular violation. "Once the school year starts again I will absolutely be turning my attention to that issue on a regular basis, all over the precinct, including that area since it is one of our high accident frequency locations," Gudmundsen told the Herald.
Like each precinct in the county, the Fourth also conducts Operation Safe Stop (OSS), a state-funded program whose purpose is to augment enforcement of the school bus law. Police target areas where violations occur most according to school bus companies who provide them with this information. The precincts conduct OSS whenever the state allocates funds for it, and the Fourth last conducted OSS in Oceanside this spring in different locations throughout the community. It conducts these operations in Oceanside once or twice each year.
Motorist who fail to obey the law can face a fine of between $250 to $400, five points on their license, and/or imprisonment up to 30 days for the first infraction.
"We have a police car in the area when the bus is supposed to be there, in both the morning and the afternoon. We'll either follow the bus or we will be secluded in a location waiting for the bus to arrive and we wait to see if anyone drives past it," said Ron Walsh, crime analyst at the Fourth Precinct, who has participated in OSS.
Speed and stop control
Kids out on the streets are one reason speeders are a top concern for many residents, particularly for those who live on or near roads know as straight-aways, such as Lawson Blvd., Long Beach Rd., and Atlantic and Waukena Aves., which tend to invite those drivers.
To discourage or control these drivers, residents often call for the installation of traffic lights at strategic points along such roads, and for stop signs on side-street straight-aways.
A resident at a past town hall meetings, for example, asked Hempstead Town Councilman Anthony Santino, to post additional stop signs at certain spots along Waukena Ave. between Brower and Skillman Aves. because, she said, "Cars barrel down Waukena." Controlling speeding by such means, however, is technically impermissible.
Town traffic control inspectors must conduct a survey of an area to determine whether a stop sign is warranted there. Among the relevant information they must analyze are the number of accidents that occurred in the area over the past eight years, the angles of the roads, and obstructions to visibility caused by trees, bushes or other objects. To form their analysis, they consult the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which contains all national design, application and placement standards for traffic control devices. It instructs that stop signs not be used to control speeding.
David Brody, a resident of Concord Ave., had called for a stop sign to be posted at the corner of Virginia Ave. and Lawrence Ave., a straight-away whose residents claim is a haven for speedsters. Brody claims that even where Lawrence is winding, between Henrietta Ave. and Concord, motorists treat that area "like a race track."
"In the last year I've had three accidents in front of my house, and I've had people drive up on my lawn," Brody said. "A few years ago somebody lost control around the curve and took out a neighbor's brick wall. A couple of years ago somebody hit a tree and someone else hit a parked car. Somebody is really going to get hurt here."
When Brody called and asked the traffic department for stop signs near his corner, which he believed would solve the speeding problems, they told him stop signs are not permitted for that purpose.
"Some residents might view speeding as causing the accidents in their areas, and to some degree accidents are tied into the installation of stop signs, not the speeding," a town spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, while some residents want stop signs installed to control speeding, others complain about motorists who fail to observe existing stop signs. At town meetings, residents have complained that this is a common at intersections along Fortesque Ave. and Weidner Ave., and they asked police for both better enforcement in these areas and the posting of large signs to replace those obstructed by trees.
At the May meeting, several residents of Marlborough Rd., located across the street from the Oceanside High School, appealed to the officials to consider doing something about the speedy, reckless drivers they claim are regulars on their street, one of whom flipped his car across two front yards in May.
"Someone is going to get killed on this block. It's inevitable," said one Marlborough Rd. resident, who added that for years there have been many hit-and-run accidents along that narrow road.
In suggesting solutions for these problems, some residents called for converting the road into a dead end. "We will look at every means of traffic control for the street," Santino told them.
Among the devices the Fourth has used in recent years to deter or ticket speeders is radar trailers, which post both the speed limit and an electronic read out indicating a driver's speed as he approaches and passes the trailer.
"It is an excellent tool that we've employed in a variety of spots where there is a propensity for drivers to speed, and there's no question about it that it has the effect of slowing down the traffic," Gudmundsen said.
In enforcing speeding and stop sign laws, Gudmundsen said the precinct targets areas for enforcement through both direct patrol in particular locations where a significant number of violations have occurred, and whenever officers have the opportunity to go on these patrols.
"We encourage them to enforce traffic laws and to write as many citations as they can," he said.
