After wrong-way arrests, state checks roads

Amid a wave of wrong-way drunken-driving arrests, state transportation officials have begun comprehensive inspections of signs and markings at hundreds of highway entrance and exit ramps across Long Island to ensure that traffic safety devices are in place.

Officials will check all 450 entrance and exit ramps at 158 highway interchanges in Nassau and Suffolk to make sure devices including double-mounted "Wrong Way" signs and reflective pavement arrows are present, DOT regional spokeswoman Eileen Peters said Monday. She said the inventory is being taken by the department's regular maintenance crews in addition to their other duties, which include plowing snow and making road repairs. She said there are no additional funds for the effort, or a deadline for completion.

"They are fitting it in between their normal responsibilities and as their priorities allow," Peters said. "This was something that we've decided was a good thing to do. . . . We just wanted something comprehensive."

The inspections mark an expansion of the agency's attention to wrong-way driving and come as at least 16 people have been arrested on wrong-way DWI charges since mid-November - when a veteran NYPD officer was killed as, police said, his car was hit head-on by a wrong-way drunken driver on the Northern State Parkway in Dix Hills.

The DOT's regional office announced last month that it would examine seven spots on Long Island roadways identified by Newsday readers and a driver advocate as confusing to navigate and as potential contributors to wrong-way driving.

The agency said Monday that those seven are being inspected separately, to determine whether anything could be done to make them less confusing. DOT officials have repeatedly stressed that it's not engineering deficiencies but intoxicated motorists who are to blame for wrong-way driving.

Of the new inspection effort, Deborah Rausch, an agency spokeswoman in Albany, said, "The DOT is constantly ensuring the safety of the traveling public. That means reviewing its own operations and making sure that everything is in good working order."

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who is working with state Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) to complete legislation that would create new penalties for wrong-way drivers, spoke approvingly of the DOT's plan to inspect entrance and exit ramps.

But she called Long Island "the epicenter of the wrong-way driving problem in the state" and said the agency has a responsibility to do more. She is pushing for a project to install "rumble strips" to alert drivers when they enter a highway from an exit ramp.

Fuschillo, who has sponsored some of the state's key drunken-driving laws, called the DOT's inspection "a good first step."

Rice has been calling since late November for the state to get more involved in addressing the problem. She wants to discuss with DOT officials having her office partner with the agency, which from 1991 to 1994 spent $2.2 million to outfit ramps on Long Island with signage and devices to prevent wrong-way driving. Rausch said she expects agency officials to meet with Rice during the next few weeks and discuss her proposal. "All ideas are welcome," she said.

With Will Van Sant
 

7 Troublesome driving spots

Newsday readers and a driver advocate in early December identified seven locations on Long Island roads as tricky for motorists to navigate and which could contribute to wrong-way driving. In all but one of the locations, Roslyn Road at the LIE South Service Road, adjacent entrance and exit ramps were identified as the primary problem. Sometimes those ramps are separated only by surface markings or low barriers. The state DOT is examining all seven spots to determine what factors have contributed to the layout of the locations.

1. Lakeville Road/Marcus Ave. & Northern State Parkway

2. New Hyde Park Road & Northern State Parkway

3. Roslyn Road & LIE South Service Road

4. Old Country Road & Wantagh Parkway

5. Hempstead Turnpike & Wantagh Parkway

6. Round Swamp Road & Northern State Parkway

7. Connetquot Avenue & Sunrise Highway