1 Killed, 2 Seriously Hurt In Crash On LIE Service Road

MEDFORD, NY – One person was killed and two others were seriously injured in a crash at a notoriously dangerous intersection in Suffolk County Saturday evening.

According to Suffolk Police, a 1996 Honda Accord was traveling south on Old Medford Avenue when the car collided with a 2001 Mercury that was traveling east on Expressway Drive South in Medford at about 5:10 p.m.

The impact of the crash sent the Honda into a residential driveway. One person in the Honda was killed and two others were seriously hurt. Police have not yet named any of the victims.

The driver of the Mercury was not injured. No criminal charges have been filed. The investigation is continuing, police said.

The crash occurred at an intersection that some locals avoid completely because of its propensity for collisions. There were 28 crashes at the intersections of Old Medford Avenue with the north and south Long Island Expressway service roads between 2011 and 2016, the Long Island Advance reported last year.

A petition created last year urging the state's Department of Transportation to make the intersections safer has nearly 500 signatures.

"There is a blind spot when entering and exiting from under the bridge," the petition reads. "The cars coming from Expressway Drive North and Expressway Drive South are passing the red lights at a high rate of speed then crashing into the motorists coming from Old Medford Avenue."

A Google Maps image showing the scene of Saturday's crash.

Local politicians and the DOT have so far passed the buck around and nothing has been done.

"Although the traffic signals at this location are maintained by NYSDOT, maintenance of the LIE service road in this area is under the jurisdiction of Suffolk County and Old Medford Avenue is a town road," a DOT public information officer told the Advance last year.

Local residents have been sounding the horn on the intersections for more than a decade.

"My son was killed by a drunk driver on this corner almost 12 years ago," Cecile Zatwarnicki wrote on the petition. "We signed a petition then to have them do something about this corner, but nothing was ever done. Please help us to have NYS Dept of Transportation correct this so no other mother has to go through the pain and sorrow that I have to live with all these years."

Read the Long Island Advance story here.

Photo by Fully Involved Media Group