Long Island's roads are getting more deadly

Daily Point

Island had over 84,000 crashes last year, up 4% over 2022

There were 84,175 motor vehicle crashes on Long Island’s roads last year, according to the latest data obtained by The Point from the New York State Department of Transportation. That’s a 4% increase over 2022.

These crashes resulted in 216 deaths and more than 26,000 injuries, including 1,400 serious or life-threatening ones. In Nassau County, 66 people died in crashes while in Suffolk, which is larger geographically and has more roads, there were 150 deaths.

Overall data from the NYSDOT for 2022, 2023 and the first five months of 2024 indicates that 509 people died in crashes on Long Island during this period, and nearly 60,000 people suffered injuries, 3,204 of them reported as serious. Pedestrians were involved in more than 3,000 crashes and 1,835 collisions involved bicyclists.

While there is an assumption that teenagers are more likely to be involved in careless driving, data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that Long Island drivers 65 or older were involved in nearly twice as many fatal crashes as drivers between the ages of 15 and 20. Notably, the largest number of fatalities took place between 6 p.m. and midnight.

Long Island has consistently led the state in traffic fatalities, according to a recent report. Suffolk and Nassau ranked first and second, respectively, in motor vehicle fatalities statewide every year since 2008, according to the NHTSA. The latest state data confirms what has previously been reported, that State Route 25, known as Jericho Turnpike and Middle Country Road, and State Route 27, better known as Sunrise and Montauk highways, were among the most dangerous roads on the Island.

The first five months of 2024 have already seen nearly 23,000 collisions with 51 deaths and 356 seriously injured. There have been 379 reported pedestrian collisions and 185 collisions involving bicyclists from January to June. While those numbers are concerning, overall, crash rates on Long Island are 27% lower this year compared with the first five months of 2023.

According to The Point’s analysis, the evening rush hour between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. was when 31% or 26,500 of Long Island’s road crashes took place, while the morning rush hour time slot between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. had the least number among the four time slots, making up 15% of the total number of reported accidents that year. And 44.5% of crashes took place between noon and 6 p.m.

A heat map of crashes on Long Island in 2023

NYSDOT data does not detail the causes of crashes. However, according to NHTSA crash fatality data dating to 2022, 65 deaths on Long Island’s roads were caused by speeding, and Suffolk County topped the state for the largest number of fatalities involving speeding, distracted and intoxicated driving, and drivers and passengers not wearing seat belts. In 2022, there were 25 reported hit-and-run fatalities on Long Island.

— Karthika Namboothiri karthika.namboothiri@newsday.com

Pencil Point

A bear to tackle

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Final Point

Two takes on the MTA's big congestion pricing hole 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s dicey budget forecast produced more than details at the agency’s monthly board meeting Wednesday. It also led to two contrasting takes on how transparent the agency was in its predictions — one coming from the authority’s head and the other in a news release from the state’s chief fiscal watchdog.

The MTA’s budget forecast made one enormous assumption: Congestion pricing will be back — or there’ll be some alternative to cover the revenue it would have generated.

As a result, MTA executives said, there’s no need to include the negative impacts of the congestion-pricing pause in the forecast — at least for now.

"Right now, they’re not in our out-year forecasts because we’re assuming one of those two outcomes will occur," said MTA chief financial officer Kevin Willens.

The MTA did, however, outline some risks if that assumption is wrong. Basically, the loss of congestion pricing would take a hammer to the MTA’s operating budget potentially amounting to more than $700 million — and that’s beyond the actual loss of $15 billion from congestion pricing itself, funds that were earmarked for capital expenditures.

The lack of congestion pricing would increase costs and decrease revenue on the operating side, too, deputy chief financial officer Jai Patel said, pointing to a combination of debt service, increased labor and maintenance costs that would occur without new and ongoing capital projects, and the impact of the lost benefits of congestion pricing, such as increased ridership.

But MTA chief executive Janno Lieber’s contention during a post-meeting news conference that the MTA’s risk disclosure was "the ultimate in transparency" was quickly countered by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

"The presentation of the July plan makes clear that hundreds of millions of dollars in operational risks have been created by the funding hole, but we still do not yet know if or when critical capital upgrades and maintenance will happen," DiNapoli wrote in a statement released Wednesday.

DiNapoli urged the MTA to include in its capital projects dashboard any changes to schedules and budgets, while also identifying any projects that have been stopped or paused.

Even without including the congestion pricing risks in its forecast, the MTA is projecting that after balanced budgets in 2024, 2025 and 2026, the authority will face a potential annual deficit of more than $400 million by 2027 and 2028. Lower real estate taxes and lower subway and bus fare revenue were primary factors, Willens said.

But DiNapoli suggested that the actual picture might be far worse.

"While the MTA acknowledges new funding gaps beginning in 2027, these are likely understated, until the capital funding issue is dealt with," he wrote.

Also clear: The MTA will again have to rely on Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature to dig out of the hole — a hole Hochul created.

"Once again, we’re going to need help," said Hochul board appointee Sammy Chu.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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