Suffolk leads NY in traffic deaths. Alcohol and drug use, road design and enforcement are among possible reasons, experts say

The driver of a Toyota Corolla struck and killed Eileen O’Hara as she walked home from evening Mass at St. Joseph’s Church in Babylon just after sunset in January 2023.

The 78-year-old grandmother of nine crossed Great East Neck Road on a stretch without a crosswalk, which her son said is poorly lit and plagued by speeding cars.

O’Hara was "just overall, a really good lady," her son James told Newsday.

O’Hara was one of 155 people who died in traffic crashes in Suffolk County in 2023 — more than five times the number of people murdered that year. The Toyota driver, a 27-year-old woman, was not injured and was not charged, police said.

Suffolk has led the state in total traffic deaths for at least a decade, according to data released this fall from the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research (ITSMR) in Albany. It's also New York’s deadliest large county when it comes to the traffic fatality rate by population size, a Newsday analysis has found.

Suffolk’s rate — 10.2 deaths per 100,000 population — was nearly four times New York City’s and nearly double the statewide rate in 2023. Over the decade ending in 2023, Suffolk’s average annual traffic fatality rate, 9.2, was the highest among New York’s 20 most populous counties, according to the data. The 25 counties that had higher traffic fatality rates than Suffolk in 2023 are predominantly rural, with a combined population roughly equal to Suffolk’s 1.52 million residents.

Nassau’s traffic fatality rate was slightly lower than the statewide rate and about half Suffolk’s in 2023, the latest year for which complete data was available.

That Suffolk County’s residents drive a lot explains only a part of its high fatality rate, according to traffic experts, safety advocates and an analysis of state data. Road design plays a role, and Suffolk also has a large share of fatal crashes that are alcohol- and drug-related. Meanwhile, traffic enforcement is relatively low, with one of the lowest rates of drivers ticketed among the major counties, even though ticketing last year climbed back to pre-pandemic levels, Newsday’s analysis shows.

Nassau’s share of fatal crashes that are alcohol- and drug-related is also greater than the state share, but its ticketing rate is close to the state’s rate.

In total, there were 143 fatal crashes in Suffolk in 2023 — down from 152 in 2022, but still higher than any year from 2016 to 2021. In Nassau, which has 1.38 million people, 67 people died in 61 crashes in 2023 — the lowest numbers in any year since 2018.

More miles, more risks

One reason for Suffolk’s high traffic fatality rate is that its drivers log a lot of miles, according to Kelly McGuinness, a New York City-based transportation planner at TYLin, a global engineering and advisory firm.

"More driving [means] more exposure to the traffic safety risks of driving," McGuinness said.

The average person in Suffolk traveled about 23 miles by vehicle per day in 2023 — 3½ times the distance that the average person in New York City did and about 5 miles farther than the average person in Nassau — according to Newsday’s analysis of "vehicle-miles traveled" estimates provided by the state Department of Transportation. 

But spending more time on the road does not fully explain Suffolk’s high traffic fatality rate. Suffolk had a higher fatality rate in 2023 than 21 other New York counties where the average person traveled farther by vehicle, Newsday’s analysis shows.

Alcohol- and drug-related crashes a ‘very disturbing trend’

Timothy Carpenter, 22, was riding in his uncle’s car when they were struck on March 19, 2023, on Middle Country Road in Centereach by a driver who police said was high on fentanyl. The crash killed Carpenter instantly, and his uncle suffered serious injuries.

"He had hopes and plans and dreams. He was the light of our lives," Andrea Carpenter, Timothy’s mother, said recently at a Hauppauge news conference to warn against drugged driving. Her husband and Timothy’s father, Tim Carpenter, stood beside her, holding up a photo of their son.

Nationwide, around 32% of traffic fatalities involve drunken drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and crashes involving alcohol or drugs are a large and growing problem in Suffolk County, ITSMR data show.

About 41% of the 695 traffic fatalities in Suffolk from 2019 to 2023 involved "substance-related" drivers — more than statewide, where the figure was approximately 31%, and in Nassau, where it was nearly 35%, according to ITSMR data.

ITSMR defines "substance-related" crashes as involving alcohol, illegal drugs or prescription medication, as recorded in a police crash report, ticket, alcohol test or drug test. The institute’s staff notes that the fatalities include drivers and that "testing positive for drugs or alcohol does not necessarily indicate impairment."

The data does not differentiate between the types of drugs involved. Some drugs, like marijuana — which was legalized for adult use statewide in 2021 — are difficult to test for because drivers can test positive days or weeks after using the drug.

There were 63 fatalities involving "substance-related" drivers in Suffolk in 2023, down from 68 in 2022 but up from 47 in 2019.

Lynne Pallmeyer, of Huntington, said her sister Karen Rogers-Holden was the "glue" that held her family together until she was killed by a drunken driver in 2016.

"My whole family was ripped apart. [For] the holidays it’s ... just me. I’m the only one left here on Long Island," she told Newsday at a separate pre-Thanksgiving news conference in Huntington.

Sam Schwartz, a former New York City traffic commissioner, called the rise in substance-related deaths a "very disturbing trend."

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office questioned whether the problem was worse in Suffolk than in other parts of the state, though it did not explain why the state data from ITSMR, a nonprofit that works with the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee to compile and analyze traffic statistics, would be wrong. The office also did not provide alternative data.

District Attorney Ray Tierney said he doesn’t believe that "drunken or drugged driving is any worse in this county than any other county ... [but] obviously, one fatality is too much, so that’s why we’re making the commitment to reduce that number as best we can." 

Speeding is also a major contributing factor in fatal crashes. Around 29% of traffic fatalities in Suffolk and 31% statewide were related to speeding in 2023. In Nassau, 23 people were killed in crashes involving speeding that year — 34% of traffic fatalities.

Traffic enforcement low in Suffolk

Enforcement of traffic laws is relatively low in Suffolk, compared with the other most populous counties, Newsday’s analysis of ITSMR and DOT data shows.

Law enforcement issued tickets to roughly 1 driver for every 100,000 vehicle-miles traveled in Suffolk County in 2023, compared with about 1.5 statewide. That’s the fourth-lowest rate among the 20 most populous New York counties, behind only Monroe, Saratoga and Onondaga counties. Authorities in Nassau ticketed about 1.5 drivers per 100,000 vehicle-miles traveled.

The ticket data reflects drivers cited for any infraction, including speeding, aggressive driving, impairment, seat belts, cellphone use and other reasons. The data includes tickets issued by state, county, town, and village law enforcement agencies.

Schwartz said he had not seen any conclusive studies showing a direct relationship between enforcement and crashes.

But Howard Hall, a member of the Virginia-based International Association of Chiefs of Police’s roadway safety committee, said that when traffic enforcement is focused on the most dangerous roads, crashes and fatalities go down.

"There’s a deterrent effect," he said. "People see traffic enforcement occurring, and they remember that and drive accordingly."

Beginning in 2020, police in Suffolk ticketed fewer drivers — mirroring statewide and national trends after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, when driving plummeted and the public scrutinized racial profiling in traffic stops after George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. The number of drivers ticketed in Suffolk rose in 2023, though it is still lower than 2016-2019 levels.

The number of Suffolk County fatal crashes rose dramatically in 2021 and 2022, as ticketing remained low in Suffolk.

The Suffolk County Police Department patrols the roadways in the five most western towns in the county, where it coordinates work with the New York State Police and the county sheriff’s office.

Gerard Hardy, chief of patrol of the Suffolk County Police Department, attributed the decrease in ticketing in 2020 to fewer drivers on the roadways, and said he did not see a direct connection to Floyd’s death.

"Our roadways, I’m sure you remember, were really empty throughout 2020," he said in an interview with Newsday.

Suffolk’s traffic levels, in terms of vehicle-miles traveled, have neared a rebound from the pandemic, but the number of drivers ticketed has not. In 2023, law enforcement in Suffolk ticketed 134,075 drivers, compared with 145,331 in 2019, according to ITSMR’s data. However, because authorities in Suffolk have been issuing more tickets to each driver they pull over, the total number of tickets issued has nearly reached pre-pandemic levels. In 2023, law enforcement in Suffolk issued 271,325 tickets, compared with 272,522 tickets in 2019. The county police department alone issued 195,408 tickets, surpassing its 2019 total of 190,943.

Old roadway designs

Hardy said Suffolk’s outdated road designs also contribute to the dangers facing drivers.

"Our roadways were designed over a hundred years ago, when we were an agricultural community," Hardy said.

Parts of Route 25A date from the Colonial era, while the Southern and Northern State parkways, which run through Nassau and Suffolk, were designed by the urban planner Robert Moses beginning in the 1920s. Moses favored extra curves, in part to provide scenic vistas for city residents en route to Long Island beaches and parks.

Schwartz, the former city traffic commissioner, said many Suffolk roads fail to prioritize safety for pedestrians and cyclists by having "few pedestrian crossings, numerous lanes in both directions, [and] extra lanes at intersections for turning vehicles."

More than a third, or 37%, of crash fatalities in Suffolk and Nassau were pedestrians or cyclists in 2023. That’s greater than the statewide share of 33% and the national share, around 20%, according to 2022 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA.

How to reduce fatal crashes

Hardy said the Suffolk County Police Department assigns extra officers to patrol highways seasonally, targeting risky driving behavior when it is most prevalent.

On the legislative front, Tierney said his office is pushing for the passage of a bill in the State Legislature that would enable law enforcement to charge drivers under the influence of any impairing drug — not just those on the state’s list of controlled substances.

New York is one of only four states in the country that limit their drug-impaired driving laws to a specific list of dozens of substances; last year, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that those states change their laws.

"We recognize that drugged driving is on the rise," said Paige Carbone, regional executive director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which supports the bill. "We are creating this mass movement to really advocate for stronger laws."

Road design can also make a difference.

Stephen Canzoneri, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the DOT has been working to enhance safety on its Suffolk roads, including an ongoing project to install center medians, increase travel space for pedestrians and cyclists and other improvements on State Route 347. He cited similar recent projects on State Route 112 and State Route 110, and a rebuild of State Route 25 in downtown Smithtown in 2012.

"Safety is always a top priority of the New York State Department of Transportation and we continuously review safety measures in place on all our highways," Canzoneri said.

Suffolk’s public works department, which maintains 2,041 lane-miles of road, examines past safety studies and accident histories of roads to detect patterns that may warrant further investigation and projects to resolve the problems, according to county spokesman Michael Martino.

Examples of safety measures, Martino said, include placing "audible roadway delineators," which are grooves that produce sound when a driver drifts out of a lane; adding bicycle lanes; enhancing or creating sidewalks; upgrading drainage to address road flooding; and improving the visibility of traffic signals.

James O’Hara, whose mother, Eileen, was killed while walking on Great East Neck Road, said more than anything, he wants people to slow down.

"To stop some of these accidents," he said, residents "need real enforcement, of speed, by the police."