Southern State Parkway, Brentwood housing and traffic

It's the bad drivers, not the roads

We keep reading about "Long Island's dangerous roads" [“Dangers of the Southern State," News, March 19]. That phrase is nonsense. The roads are only as dangerous as the drivers who drive on them.

Few people would consider driving 50 mph or more on a residential street because residential streets don't support driving that fast. Yet many of these same people likely don't hesitate to drive 75 mph or more on the Southern State Parkway while weaving in and out across all lanes, and they would state that if you're driving 55 mph on the parkway, you're driving too slowly.

These incidents aren't accidents. Rather, they are the predictable result of drivers intentionally operating their vehicles in a manner inappropriate for the roads on which they drive.

Without enforcement, however, little will change and more innocent people will die.

Leonard Cohen, Wantagh

On a recent Sunday, we were driving on the Southern State around 7 p.m. when out of nowhere six speeding cars chasing each other passed us. Two went up onto the grass to pass other vehicles. Even if the police were on the side of the road, do you want them driving 80 mph chasing these cars? That would only put more people at risk.

Why can't the police use drones to track and follow these vehicles, capture their license plates, and then take the appropriate action? Stricter fines and, most important, seizing these vehicles seems to be the only answer.

Rich Sundermier, Rockville Centre

The focus of so much criticism seems to be the archaic construction of the Southern State. Not to say this is not a factor, but in almost all cases of major accidents, alcohol, other drugs, high rate of speed and driver inattentiveness play a major part in the equation. The article had many valid points about the physical makeup of the parkway, but the major factor is human error.

Greater police presence, stricter enforcement, harsher penalties, and more driver education would be more fruitful ways to lessen the tragedies we see almost daily on our roadways.

Michael Limmer, Wantagh

The writer was a driver education teacher at Oceanside High School for 50 years.

Once again, I read about a speeding driver who killed people, this time a relative and another passenger in the same car while driving 123 mph on the Southern State.

I have been writing for years to elected leaders and to police officials to do something about the speeding drivers on our highways.

We law-abiding Long Islanders risk our lives each time we drive on one of our local highways. And each time we see speeders weaving in and out of traffic, putting other people's lives in jeopardy.

I have suggested to our police officials a way to curb this and have asked elected officials to change our laws so these speeders, who would be criminals if taken to court, lose their license for life and could not purchase a vehicle again.

I will keep writing and voicing my opinion about this until something is done. Shame on our politicians for again doing nothing about what is a societal travesty. All our elected leaders — local, state, and federal — do little about this for us, those who pay taxes and thus their salaries.

Bob Damato, Floral Park

I am a little skeptical of the constant suggestion that the parkway design is contributing to the high rate of fatal accidents.

I see the real cause as all the drunken and reckless driving. I've been driving on this parkway for more than 60 years, and I've never before seen the kind of reckless driving that I've witnessed in the past few years.

Charles Berry, Merrick

If you build it, many cars will come

I am all for reasonable development, but building more than 9,000 housing units at Heartland Town Square in Brentwood is an enormous project that will impact all people who live in Suffolk County and travel on the Long Island Expressway or Southern State Parkway to go to work each day [“Dreaming of housing in LI's heartland," Opinion, March 25].

If you average 1.5 cars per unit (some units could have two or three cars) and if only half the residents need to use a major highway to travel to work, that will mean an additional 6,750 cars each workday on an already jam-packed LIE and the parkways.

The county and state need to take this into consideration and plan accordingly before any final approval is granted.

John Roche, South Setauket