Call for action to remedy wrong-way driving

Five months ago Sunday, John Rey was driving his Super Shuttle van east on the Long Island Expressway in Queens to pick up airport-bound passengers when he was hit head-on by an alleged drunken driver going the wrong way.

Rey's van and the wrong-way driver's Mercedes-Benz SUV burst into flames. Rey, 64, of Greenlawn, threw himself out of the burning vehicle and was pulled away from the fire by passersby. His injuries were grievous: lungs crushed, diaphragm torn, liver lacerated and bones broken. He died 16 days later at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens.

For 10 of those 16 days, Rey and the other driver, Dave T. Richards, 31, of Hempstead, stayed in the same ward, their beds only feet from each other.

"No one can imagine the torture he went through, the torture we went through,"said Rey's youngest daughter, Courtney Rey-Ahlsen, 32.

"Our lives stopped," said eldest daughter Colleen Rey Cassar, 44.

The two could not let their father be forgotten. They went to state Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset) with a proposal they call "John Rey's Law." If passed, the legislation would require the state Department of Transportation to study ways to reduce wrong-way driving.

Rey, a shuttle driver for 20 years, knew all the roads and shortcuts of Long Island and the city. He knew how to avoid traffic, the roads to be wary of and the confusing spots for drivers.

"The roadways, they were designed years ago," Cassar said. "It's confusing. You don't have to be drunk. You can be confused. You can be from out of town."

Richards has pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault, second-degree vehicular assault, operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and third-degree aggravated unlicensed motor vehicle operation. He is due back in court Jan. 18.

Recent deadly cases

Since the July crash that injured Rey, there have been four wrong-way accidents - including one Friday - on highways and parkways in Long Island and Queens. Three were lethal.

In each instance, police said the wrong-way drivers were intoxicated, which highway statistics confirm is often the case in such crashes.

Marcellino's legislation, which he plans to introduce in January, is not the only call for action. After two wrong-way crashes over two days in mid-November, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice made public a letter she sent to the state DOT, asking for a study of remedies to prevent wrong-way driving on Long Island.

The DOT in Albany has not responded to Marcellino's or Rice's actions, and did not return calls from Newsday last week seeking a department response.

Eileen Peters, the agency's local spokeswoman, has said adequate steps already have been taken to prevent wrong-way driving. An example she noted was a $2.2-million project completed in 1994 that increased signs and road markings at 450 ramps on the Island.

No amount of road engineering can stop impaired motorists from wrongly entering highways on exit ramps, she said. The project improved safety at "every single entrance and exit ramp" to limited-access highways here, she said, with double-mounted "Wrong Way" and "Do Not Enter" signs and huge pavement arrows with reflectors on on-ramps and off-ramps.

"This was a major effort and it was done proactively," Peters said. "It was initiated to better protect motorists."

Marcellino isn't persuaded. He said the agency must do more. "It's got to be done," he said. "There are no ifs, ands or buts about it . . . Their job is to protect the public."

Engineers, driver advocates and Island motorists say drivers here must navigate dated and baffling on-ramps and off-ramps, which they believe may contribute to wrong-way driving.

Problems include plants and brush that obscure warning devices and poor lighting. A concern that motorists expressed repeatedly was roadway exits and entrances that are immediately adjacent to one another, which can confound drivers.

"Many of our roads predate modern transportation engineering," said Robert Sinclair Jr., spokesman for the AAA in New York. "As such, there are some confusing entrances/exits that are right next to one another."

Sinclair's example: a Northern State Parkway entrance from Round Swamp Road. Drivers on Round Swamp who want to go east on the Northern State must use the same road as drivers who have just exited the parkway, with the lanes separated only by double yellow lines.

William Blanchard, secretary of the Long Island branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers, said for distracted drivers, older drivers and those who don't know the area, such proximity of on- and off-ramps can mean trouble.

"You are looking for something familiar," Blanchard said. "The sign says 'Do Not Enter,' but does it apply to the on-ramp or the off-ramp?"

Disaster waiting to happen

Mara Jacobowitz, a retired homemaker from North Woodmere, said trying to go west on the Northern State Parkway from New Hyde Park Road is a disaster waiting to happen.

"It's just mind-boggling how you have to avoid being T-boned from cars that are coming south," said Jacobowitz, 53.

Drivers going north on New Hyde Park Road have to make a left turn against traffic to reach the on-ramp. There is no barrier between the on- and off-ramps at the entrance and during rush hour it's a tricky turn, she said.

Retired teacher Rhonda Piemonte has the same complaint, but about a different location. When she and her husband head home to Lido Beach from a dinner out, they often must make a left turn across traffic from eastbound Old Country Road to head south on the Wantagh Parkway. The entrance, she said, lies flush against an exit ramp.

"There's just a little tiny median," said Piemonte, 60. "It's really, really ridiculous. All you have to do is be a little out of it, and you miss it."

In East Islip, patrons at Norton's Bar & Grill on Connetquot Avenue made watching accidents or close calls a pastime, employee Angel Perez said.

Drivers going south on Connetquot who want to go east on Sunrise Highway must make a left across traffic to get to an entrance that is separated from an exit by only a low concrete barrier.

"It's so tight," said Perez, 47. There used to be an accident almost every week, he said, until a traffic light was installed on Connetquot earlier this year. Perez said he knows most wrong-way accidents involve drunk drivers but says, "not here, though."

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, wrong-way driving was a factor in 1.5 percent of fatal crashes nationwide in 2008. The DOT could not produce figures for the number of wrong-way crashes on the Island, but said the numbers are small.

There is no one section of the New York State vehicle and traffic law that relates to wrong-way driving on a highway or parkway, so it is hard to track how many tickets are issued each year. Three sections could apply, but they also could indicate an illegal U-turn, driving on the shoulder or other non-wrong-way infractions, according to Nassau, Suffolk and state police.

Peters noted some state sign setups exceed federal standards. For example, the federal government calls for "Do Not Enter" signs posted at a height of 7 feet. The state mounts signs at 7 feet, but also at 2 1/2 feet. The lower signs are aimed at impaired drivers, whose line of sight tends to be closer to ground level, Peters said.

For Cassar, that's not enough. "No one is safe from wrong-way drivers unless something is installed for prevention," she said.

With Alfonso A. Castillo