Speed radar signs are being installed on two streets in Roslyn Heights to slow motorists approaching a deadly intersection at Roslyn Road and Locust Lane where in March two Mineola teenagers were killed after crashing into the rear fence of an Oak Lane residence.
The signs at Strawberry Lane, located south of the intersection, and Murray Lane, located to the north, were initially delayed because it took 28 days to cure cement at the sites, Nassau County Legislator Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) said in an e-mail Wednesday sent to Blank Slate Media. The signs will extend over Roslyn Road to notify motorists of their speed as they approach the intersection.
“There are still more steps to go,” Jacobs wrote. “Hopefully this will make people more aware. At least, I hope so.”
A portable Nassau County Police Department speed radar sign was placed at the grassy median at Roslyn Road and Locust Lane in the aftermath of the March 5 accident that killed 19-year-old Mineola residents Steven Clancy and Javier Gonzalez. Jacobs said the sign has been moved frequently to other sites along the North Shore but has since been returned.
Additional signage warning motorists of the intersection’s curve onto Locust Lane was also placed there.
In late March, the Town of North Hempstead placed a 60-foot-long guardrail along Locust Lane to fortify the adjacent property at 66 Oak Lane, which has been the site of numerous accidents at the site in the last year.
Jacobs has said Nassau County, which controls Roslyn Road, is considering a plan to remove the intersection and constructing a traffic light with a right-turn signal in its place.
Locust Lane is controlled by the Town of North Hempstead.
About six months before Clancy and Gonzalez crashed into the backyard fence on the home’s property, a car allegedly drag racing down Roslyn Road crashed into a row of fortifying boulders placed along Locust Lane.
In October 2013, a motorist allegedly inebriated drove through the side fence of the property and totaled a car parked in the driveway.
Hours before the accident in March, Jacobs, North Hempstead Town Councilman Peter Zuckerman (D-Roslyn) and Town Clerk Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn) met at the site to discuss potential traffic-calming measures there.
“I will never give up until we find a permanent solution,” Jacobs wrote.
Wink, who represented Roslyn Heights in the Legislature prior to his election as town clerk last November, has said his legislative office had requested accident reports from crashes that took place at the intersection within the last five years to determine the best course of action for the area. In December 2013, the files were sent to Jacobs’ office.
In the immediate aftermath of the accident, the Nassau County Police Department’s 3rd Precinct sent highway patrolmen to more closely monitor Roslyn Road.
Sean McCarthy, inspector of the 3rd Precinct, said in April that in the first month after the accident, police wrote 31 summonses for speed violations, compared to six in the three-month period between Jan. 1 and March 4.
