Grant enables emergency traffic light changes

A fire chief's accident at a Northern Boulevard intersection last year while responding to an emergency call highlights why the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department needs a system that changes traffic lights for volunteer responders, officials say.

Accidents like that one, which totaled the chief's vehicle, are the second-leading cause of firefighters' deaths nationwide, said Assemb. Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck).

Schimel announced that she had secured a $125,000 state grant to install an emergency response traffic pre-emption system along congested Northern Boulevard. Fire vehicles approaching an intersection will be able to trigger the light to change.

"As someone who drives along Northern Boulevard . . . I recognize we need this," she said, as traffic zoomed past the firehouse at the corner of Jayson Avenue in Great Neck.

The firehouse is one of five in the department that open onto Northern Boulevard, said Andy DeMartin, a commissioner. Manhasset-Lakeville covers 4 miles along Northern Boulevard, from the Queens border to Port Washington Boulevard. Northern Boulevard is one of the busiest roads in Nassau.

"We have the worst traffic problems on the North Shore," DeMartin said.

Schimel said the technology, already used along Nassau's South Shore and throughout Suffolk County, will reduce response times. She said she hopes it will expand to other fire districts on the North Shore.

Chris Pagniello, a sales manager for the engineering company Traffic Systems Inc., explained that a fire vehicle will be able to signal a light change from about 2,000 feet. The light will transition from yellow to red, allowing traffic time to adjust - about seven to 10 seconds, he said.

If a "walk" signal is on, the light can't be changed, he said.

Pagniello said he expects installation at 19 intersections to begin by the end of the year.