Patrick Tarpey, of Amityville, dies after crashing into Robert Moses Causeway overpass, police say

An Amityville man crashed Sunday night into a cement pillar in West Islip and died, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

Patrick Tarpey, 59, was driving a Chevy Malibu west on Union Boulevard in West Islip when he drove the car off the roadway at the Robert Moses Causeway overpass and struck the pillar around 6:45 p.m., the department wrote in an email. The cause wasn’t disclosed.

Tarpey was pronounced dead at the scene by a physician assistant from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner.

A photo of the crash shows the hood crumpled, the car resting against the cement pillar, and the airbags deployed inside the car.

In New York State, single-vehicle crashes represent 59% of motor-vehicle crash deaths; nationwide the number is 53%, according to the most recently available statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. In 2024, 1,021 people were killed in traffic crashes in the state, 167 of them on Long Island — 105 in Suffolk and 62 in Nassau, according to preliminary statistics from the University at Albany-based Institute for Traffic Safety Management & Research.

In 2023, 222 people died in Long Island car crashes. Suffolk has led the state in the total number of traffic fatalities for at least a decade, while Nassau has ranked second deadliest in six of the past 10 years, a recent Newsday analysis found.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.