Every seven minutes on Long Island can be a matter of life or death.
After a decade of registering some of the deadliest roads across the US, the feds say they’re now “committed” to tackling Long Island’s traffic crisis — following pressure from Rep. Laura Gillen and years of staggering crash stats.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, in a letter to Gillen, confirmed his agency will coordinate with state transportation officials to study the surge of accidents on the Island and find ways to reduce the alarming death toll for motorists.
“These resources will be used to better understand and reduce traffic crashes on Long Island,” Duffy wrote in May.
The Long Island congresswoman penned a letter to Duffy back in March urging the US Department of Transportation to probe the issue.
Gillen, in her letter, pointed to a Newsday investigation that found a serious car crash occurs every seven minutes on Long Island’s 118 miles of roadway — killing more than 2,100 (roughly 210 annually) and seriously injuring more than 16,000 (about 1,600 per year) others in both Nassau and Suffolk counties from 2014 to 2023.
“The Department remains committed to eliminating fatal crashes and working with you to achieve that goal,” Duffy wrote in response.
While the feds already coordinate with state agencies to flag high-crash locations and dole out safety grants, Duffy said his agency will now work even closer with state DOT and the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee on Long Island.
The state DOT, however, wouldn’t confirm whether it had spoken with federal transportation officials — only saying it “welcomes continued support from partners across government.”
Even though the federal government provides funding and sets certain traffic safety standards for states, Long Island’s roads are owned and maintained by a patchwork of state and local agencies — creating confusion when it comes to accountability.
But Gillen, a Democrat, charged that’s no excuse for inaction.
“The deadly surge in traffic fatalities over the past decade demands our swift federal attention and intervention,” she wrote. “We can and must do much more.”
The lawmaker encouraged towns, villages and counties across Long Island to apply for grants under the Safe Streets and Roads for All program — a federal initiative that awards up to $25 million for roadway design upgrades and other safety efforts.
The deadline to apply is June 26.
Duffy noted that Long Island is already getting $1.2 million in federal funding this year from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, earmarked for traffic enforcement, local safety programs and resources for medical examiners.
Meanwhile, state transportation officials said there are also several safety projects either underway or recently completed, including a $7 million overhaul of intersections in Valley Stream and Huntington as well as a $27 million redesign of Exit 53 on the Long Island Expressway.
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