Mom honors son by fixing road where he died

Tokens of Lorraine Rubino Luongo's memories of her late son, Nicholas, decorate her home - pictures on a wall, a stone tablet on the front porch, a locket around her neck - but she shares with her neighborhood her most poignant tribute to her son.

Luongo, 45, an executive assistant at Stony Brook University who lives in Medford, spent two years petitioning neighbors and pushing county officials to restructure Woodside Avenue, the site of the July 2008 car accident that killed Nicholas, 17.

The about-$750,000 road project, which narrowed 2 1/2 miles of Woodside Avenue from five lanes to three and added a shoulder and bicycle lanes, was completed last fall.

Luongo, who lives less than 300 feet from Woodside Avenue, began pushing for changes to the road a month after her son's death.

Police said at the time that the accident that killed Nicholas - he was a passenger in a car that was involved in a head-on collision - was likely caused by excessive speed. Driver Christopher Vogel, of Medford, who was 20 at the time, suffered critical injuries in the crash and was not cited by police.

The downsized road is now less likely to encourage speeding, Luongo said.

"I didn't want another family to feel what I was feeling," Luongo said.

Luongo collected more than 500 signatures from neighbors and enlisted the help of County Legis. Jack Eddington (I-Medford) to advocate for the road's restructuring. In June, Eddington brought the proposal before the legislature, which passed the measure after community meetings and a traffic study.

Eddington's argument to restructure Woodside Avenue was bolstered by other fatal accidents on the road. Joseph Grandinetti, 20, died in 2006 when his motorcycle collided with a sport utility vehicle and skidded into another vehicle. Angelica Nappi, 14, was killed in 2008 when a man driving while on drugs crashed into a car full of children. The driver, Stephen Catalano, was sentenced to 5 years of probation for criminally negligent homicide following the crash.

The reduction of lanes has made the road less conducive to speeding, Eddington said.

"When you got on it, you feel like you wanna just fly," he said. "Not anymore."

The changes to Woodside Avenue did not come without resistance from some in the neighborhood. Some residents felt they were not consulted before work started, said Assemb. Dean Murray (R-East Patchogue). But after an October public meeting, more residents warmed to the new road plan, Murray said.

Luongo said she hopes the changes make speed less of a problem.

"If there was anything that could be done to lessen the risk, then I wanted it to get done," she said.