Long Island's dangerous roads: Newsday investigates years of death, injury and heartbreak

Amir Porterfield’s mom misses everything about the 15-year-old who loved to bake cupcakes and play football at Copiague High School.

"The little jokes, the hugs, the kisses," said Iesha Kyles, 34. "I miss the yelling and the bickering amongst my children — my house is a little quiet these days."

Seventeen months ago, Amir stayed late after school to watch a volleyball game, then parted with friends and began walking home. After a few blocks, he reached a dimly lit part of Sunrise Highway, with mechanic workshops, kitchen supply stores and gas stations set back from the road. In the crosswalk just after 7 p.m. two vehicles — a hatchback and an SUV — struck him in succession, according to the police report. He died a short time later at Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip.

A cluster of candles, left over from a vigil, still sits on the sidewalk at 35th Street and Sunrise Highway, yards from where the cars struck Amir on Nov. 2, 2023. A faded photo of the teenager, clad in his #51 Copiague football jersey, is tacked to a telephone pole, staring out into traffic.

Amir was the third pedestrian killed at the intersection over an 11-month period. Along that half-mile stretch of Sunrise Highway over the past decade, crashes killed 9 people, according to state data.

For those not directly affected, it’s easy to tune out traffic casualties as background noise, like the drone of vehicles on Long Island’s busy roadways.

But when you sum it all, the human toll is staggering.

Traffic crashes killed more than 2,100 people across Long Island over the decade ending in 2023 — roughly the size of the Village of Bellport — according to official data compiled by the Albany-based Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research.

Another 16,000 victims — about the size of Floral Park — suffered severe injuries, meaning they were unable to leave the scene without assistance. Some had life-altering skull fractures, internal injuries, broken or distorted limbs, unconsciousness, severe lacerations or burns.

Newsday is launching a yearlong series focusing on dangerous roads here on Long Island, one of the deadliest regions for motorists and pedestrians in the state. Traffic crashes are so pervasive on Long Island that the collisions have touched nearly every resident and family, from fender benders to injuries to deaths. And the contributing factors are just as varied, from drivers who repeatedly lose their licenses, to impaired motorists, to how police enforce traffic laws. The series will explore potential solutions, as well as how risks are spread unevenly among communities.

Traffic crashes were the leading cause of accidental death among young people ages 5-19 on Long Island from 2018 to 2023, and they were the second-leading cause among all Long Islanders under 80 after drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

There were nearly six times as many traffic fatalities as homicide victims on Long Island in 2023.

One way that public health specialists think about the impact is by calculating "potential years of life lost," assuming an average life span of 75 years. By that metric, Long Island lost at least 5,800 years of life just in 2023.

In monetary terms, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates New Yorkers paid $23.6 billion in medical and legal bills, lost productivity, property damage and other crash-associated expenses in 2019. Those not directly involved in crashes paid roughly three-quarters of those costs, primarily through higher insurance premiums, taxes, congestion-related costs and other impacts, according to the NHTSA.

The Island’s traffic fatality rate — 7.6 per 100,000 population — was higher than the state average of 5.6 in 2023. At the national level, the average was 12.2.

None of these statistics, of course, reflects what it feels like to lose a friend, a loved one or a son.

Amir’s loss left a hole in the family. Kyles said she has struggled with anxiety and depression ever since.

"You never expect your kid to go outside and never come home," Kyles said. "You just think about it after — like, what could you have done? What should I have done? Is there anything that can be done?"

His father, Kyle Porterfield, a Copiague football alum, saw himself in his oldest son. 

"He was a die-hard football player — straight dog on the field, in a good way," he said, adding that Amir loved to swim and fish at Jones Beach. "He loved the water. Loved the water."

The New York State Department of Transportation, whose roads account for about a third of Long Island’s traffic fatalities and include Sunrise Highway, declined to make Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez available for an interview for this story.

But in a statement, spokesman Stephen Canzoneri said "safety is always a top priority."

"We continuously review safety measures in place on all our highways," he said.

David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the Virginia-based national nonprofit that issues vehicle safety ratings, said traffic safety presents a national "public health crisis."

But solutions — which range from engineering to enforcement and education — don’t always receive the political or media attention they deserve, he said.

"We've got to do a better job of getting communities to understand what's happening in their cities, their counties, their neighborhoods and ... then identify what the potential solutions are," he said. "When we start talking about solutions these days, it's going to have to happen at the state and the local level."

After decades of progress, fatalities rise

The first recorded traffic death in U.S. history happened in 1899, just a few dozen miles from where Amir was killed, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Henry Bliss, a real estate broker, was exiting a public streetcar on Central Park West when he was struck by an automobile carrying the son of then-former New York Mayor Franklin Edson. Despite attempts to save him, Bliss "was so seriously injured that he could not live," The New York Times reported at the time.

With the mass production of cars in the 1910s and the creation of the interstate highway system in the 1950s, both driving and crashes became more common. Nationally, traffic deaths peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with more than 54,000 annual deaths, according to the National Safety Council.

But then — both nationally and on Long Island — things began to improve. Between 1980 and 2019, deaths on Long Island decreased by about 55%, according to a federal database of fatal accidents.

Guohua Li, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, said the national decline was caused not so much by changes in driving behavior as by engineering advances — things like seat belts, air bags, side impact protection and braking improvements.

"But the progress has sort of stagnated in the past two decades or so," he told Newsday. "And in recent years, we have seen some troubling signs that some aspects of motor vehicle or transportation safety have gotten worse."

Nationally, traffic deaths have trended upward since 2014. On Long Island, the turning point came with the pandemic in 2020.

After reaching a historic low of 189 in 2019, fatalities stayed steady in 2020, even as traffic levels plummeted on the Island. They then rose to 243 by 2022 — an increase of 29% over 2019. In 2023, 222 people were killed, 17% higher than 2019.

Source: NYSDOT, ITSMR. Note: ITSMR defines speed-related crashes as involving "unsafe speed" as recorded in a police report or a speeding ticket. ITSMR defines "substance-related" drivers as those using alcohol, illegal drugs or prescription drugs as recorded in a police report, ticket or test. A positive test does not necessarily mean impairment.

The Albany institute’s crash numbers for 2024 are not complete, and the data for a year typically isn’t finalized until September or October of the following year.

To provide a more immediate snapshot of what’s happening on Long Island’s roads, Newsday created a database of fatal crashes, which will be available to the public next week at www.newsday.com/dangerousroads. Based on news stories and police press releases, the database provides crash-specific information and gives a sense of the ongoing loss. It is not comprehensive, but as of March 26, it contained 155 fatal crashes and 167 fatalities in 2024 and 27 crashes and 30 fatalities so far this year.

Anecdotally, Long Islanders will tell you drivers became more reckless after the pandemic. There is data to support this.

Fatalities due to speed-related crashes rose 51% between 2019 and 2022 on Long Island, according to state data.

Likewise, the number of fatalities involving drivers using alcohol, drugs or prescription medication rose 55%.

Both substance- and speed-related crash fatalities fell slightly in 2023 but remain above pre-pandemic levels.

Robert Sinclair, a spokesman on Long Island for AAA Northeast, said some drivers behaved egregiously as streets emptied out in 2020.

"The open road is the siren song to the speeder," he said. "There was a lot of bad behavior going on during the pandemic, and it just continued."

Notably, serious traffic injuries and the total number of reported crashes — those with either a death, injury or property damage over $1,000 — have not followed the same trajectory as traffic fatalities. Both the number of crashes and those with serious injuries fell as Long Islanders drove less after the pandemic. In 2023, there were about 80,000 total crashes on Long Island — 4,000 fewer than in 2019.

Sinclair said the rising fatalities amid lower total crashes may be because a small group of drivers are engaging in much riskier behavior.

Other risks have been persistent. Eighty-two pedestrians and cyclists were killed in 2023 — a number that has fluctuated only slightly since the 1990s, even as deaths among motor vehicle occupants declined through 2019.

Likewise, using a seat belt is a proven way to reduce risk, yet not enough people wear them. Unrestrained people made up about 34% of fatalities among occupants of motor vehicles, excluding motorcycles, in 2023 — a number that has remained fairly consistent over the years.

Still other trends are difficult to measure.

According to official data, driver inattention or distraction played a role in between 7% and 11% of fatal crashes each year from 2014 to 2023. But this may be an undercount since distracted driving is difficult to prove in any given accident, said Abdulgafoor Bachani, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University.

The widespread adoption of mobile phones — which increase crash risk by up to 23 times when texting and four times when used at all — may have contributed to the nationwide uptick in fatalities, he said.

Another uncertainty relates to cannabis, which New York legalized in 2021.

Statewide, about 18% of traffic fatalities in 2023 involved drivers who tested positive, were ticketed or were reported for using marijuana or other drugs, up from 16% in 2019. However, enforcement often relies on officers’ observations, since testing for THC — the psychoactive compound in cannabis — can be tricky and unreliable.

It's hard to quantify the contribution of cannabis, said Tim Naimi, director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria.

While marijuana and other illegal drugs contribute to the problem, alcohol is the greater cause of traffic fatalities nationally, he said.

A perilous stretch

After the crash that killed Amir, Suffolk County police investigators prepared a report using a standardized statewide form known as an MV-104A. It notes the date and time of the crash (7:02 p.m.), the weather (clear), visibility (dark but with streetlights), and the identities of the drivers who hit Amir, both women in their 60s.

The report says Amir was in the crosswalk without waiting for the pedestrian signal — a finding based on CCTV footage, police told his mother — but does not reveal much else.

It did not indicate how fast the drivers were going. The officer who filled it out left blank a section where investigators can choose from a list of over 50 apparent contributing factors, ranging from "driver distraction" to "alcohol involvement," "unsafe speed" or "pavement defective."

Pedestrians have the right of way in crosswalks only when they are following the pedestrian traffic signals, but state law also requires drivers to exercise "due care" to avoid hitting pedestrians.

Police filed no charges and issued no tickets to the drivers in Amir's case.

However, the DMV — which reviews all fatal crashes separately from any criminal or civil cases — chose to suspend one driver's license for 90 days, according to DMV records. In a December hearing, a DMV administrative judge found that while the first driver did have a green light, she should have been able to see Amir and avoid hitting him.

The judge noted that Amir wore a light pink sweatshirt with brown sweatpants and was 6-foot-2 and 250 pounds. A witness said the driver had an unobstructed view of Amir and two other pedestrians nearby, one just ahead of him in the crosswalk and one standing in the highway's median.

Kyles and Porterfield say there are other important factors, besides what police initially reported, that could have contributed to their son’s death.

Until the previous year, when Amir was still in middle school, he rode the bus. But when he entered high school in 2023, he was no longer eligible for busing because he lived within a mile and a half of campus, they said. Each day, he crossed Sunrise Highway twice on foot, coming and going.

While the district provides a crossing guard at that intersection for about an hour before and after the regular school day, the guards are generally not on duty for students coming home late from after-school activities, according to Amir’s parents.

Through a spokesperson, the school district declined to comment on how it deals with safety along Sunrise Highway. It also declined to comment on Amir’s case.

The road design also could have been a factor, the parents said.

The highway intersects 35th Street at an angle, and it can be difficult for a pedestrian to tell whether vehicles are turning or going straight, they said. Pedestrians have to contend with drivers on the six-lane highway who are frequently speeding over the 55-mph limit.

Canzoneri, the spokesman, said in a statement that the DOT has made several safety enhancements at the intersection since 2019, though he did not respond when asked whether they happened before or after the three pedestrians, including Amir, were killed in 2022 and 2023.

The DOT "takes the issue of pedestrian safety very seriously and we will continue to review accommodations and safety measures in place on all our highways to safeguard pedestrians," he said.

Just as Amir’s crash report provides only a narrow window into his death, some experts say traffic safety studies often miss underlying issues.

Around 90% of all crashes on Long Island involve human factors, according to ITSMR data.

But Wes Marshall, a traffic engineering professor at the University of Colorado Denver, believes that engineering plays a bigger role than those numbers suggest.

"The way the data is structured makes us think we have this huge human error problem. We don’t even think we have an engineering problem," he said.

Roads are often designed to move the most vehicles at the highest speed at the cost of safety, contends Marshall, author of the book "Killed by a Traffic Engineer."

Wide lanes, open shoulders and buildings set back from the street — like on the stretch of highway where Amir was struck — can encourage cars to go fast. Speed can exponentially increase the severity of a crash, as well as the reaction time needed to avoid one.

You should be designing roads for the people you have, not the people you wish for.

— Elissa Kyle, placemaking director at Vision Long Island

Elissa Kyle, placemaking director at Vision Long Island, a Northport group that advocates for more walkable and bikeable downtowns, said education and stricter enforcement are not enough without better engineering that anticipates humans making mistakes.

"You should be designing roads for the people you have, not the people you wish for," she said.

Amir’s parents said they’d like to see drivers on that section of Sunrise Highway slow down, either through a reduction in the speed limit or better enforcement of the existing one.

More signage could help, or traffic cameras, Kyles suggested. (State law authorizes speed cameras in school zones, although neither Suffolk nor Nassau participate, and Sunrise Highway falls just outside of the school’s zone.) They also think that improving street lighting, expanding school crossing guards’ hours and better educating kids about how to cross the road could help.

Gregory Grizopoulos, a lawyer for the family, said that they have filed a notice of complaint — the first step in a lawsuit — against the state DOT for "negligent road design."

Solutions: Enforcement, engineering, education

Depending on what part of the traffic safety problem you look at, different solutions emerge.

Focusing on the role of individual choices — to drink or not drink, to speed or not speed — can point to stricter enforcement, or better driver education efforts. Focusing on the environmental or social causes — like road design or the prevalence of alcohol and drug use — can lead to engineering or policy-level fixes.

Harkey, the traffic safety expert, said all of these things have roles to play.

"I think the bottom line of all this is you have to look at what the problems are in your community, and then you have to look for holistic solutions, whether it’s on the roadway side, whether it’s on the behavior and the policy side."

Long Island authorities say they have a number of ongoing enforcement efforts and education initiatives.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina, who was sworn in in February, has said beefing up enforcement of drunken and drugged driving is a priority.

"Quite frankly, the roads in general are not as safe as they should be," he told Newsday recently.

The county launched a special task force to combat illegal racing last year, one of whose members, Officer Brendon Gallagher, was hospitalized after a crash trying to stop a race in early January.

Others say more remote enforcement is necessary. While Suffolk County recently ended its red-light camera program, Nassau’s is ongoing but unpopular among many drivers who see it as a money grab. School bus camera tickets began rolling out in Suffolk County in 2021 and has expanded to parts of Nassau. That program has also drawn sharp criticism from drivers.

Still, Harkey said that when implemented properly, red-light and speed cameras can help reduce serious crashes.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told Newsday his office has a long-running awareness program for high schoolers, Choices and Consequences, that aims to educate young people about the risks of distracted and impaired driving.

Tierney also said he wants to make it easier for officers to arrest impaired drivers by passing a bill in the State Legislature that would enable them to charge drivers under the influence of any "impairing" drug — not just those on the state’s list of controlled substances.

Another bill, stalled in the statehouse since 2013, would reduce New York’s legal blood alcohol limit from 0.08% to 0.05%. Naimi said a similar law has been effective at reducing deaths in Utah since 2018.

Several local authorities on Long Island, including Suffolk County and Brookhaven Town, have announced Vision Zero plans in recent years. The approach, which was pioneered in Sweden and rolled out in New York City in 2014, aims to eliminate traffic deaths by emphasizing engineering improvements, like adding protected bike lanes and slowing down traffic.

Canzoneri, the DOT spokesman, pointed to ongoing safety improvements on State Route 347, Nesconset Highway, which runs from Mount Sinai to Hauppauge, involving installing center medians, increasing travel space for pedestrians and cyclists, adding turning lanes and bus pull-off areas, and coordinating timing of traffic signals.

Anil Yazici, a professor of traffic engineering at Stony Brook University, said that because Long Island’s roads vary so much — from crowded highways in Nassau to rural roads on the East End — safety improvements need a tailored approach.

But in general, he said, better bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, as well as better access to public transit like the Long Island Rail Road, could reduce car travel and improve safety.

"Many people have bikes in their garages ... but I don't see those bikes on the street as much. What I'm assuming is people are afraid to ride, for a good reason," he said. "We need infrastructure that will help everyone travel safely."

What Amir left behind

After Amir’s death, Kyles was too depressed to work. She lost her job, then her home. She eventually started working again, as a manager at a group home for people with mental disabilities. In an effort to move forward, she and her surviving son, Kaydin, moved to Patchogue.

The new apartment is full of Amir’s mementos: photos of his graduation from middle school, an award from a Suffolk County coaches’ association, a football signed after his death by his teammates at Copiague High.

His father, Kyle Porterfield, said he keeps his son’s cleats and mouthpiece at his home in Roslyn Heights.

Kyles said Kaydin, now 11 and a "mirror image of his brother," has struggled hard with Amir’s loss but often lightens the mood at home with jokes.

"Joking is his way of not being sad," she said.

Kyles herself is taking one day at a time, but still struggles.

"Nobody's the same," she said. "Nobody will ever be the same."