Levittown man killed crossing street

A Levittown man was killed early Saturday while crossing Hempstead Turnpike, the latest casualty on what has been called the metropolitan area's deadliest road for pedestrians.

Nassau police said Peter Thearle, 19, was walking north across the turnpike near Gardiners Avenue in Levittown at 4:30 a.m. when he was struck by an eastbound 2003 Dodge pickup truck in the right lane.

He was then hit again, by a 2003 Saturn traveling eastbound in the center lane, police said. Thearle was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police spokesman James Imperiale said Thearle did not appear to have been crossing at the intersection.

Neither driver appeared to have broken any laws, Imperiale said.

Nilma Perez, 46, supervisor at the nearby Friendly's restaurant, said her daughter was a friend of Thearle's, who went to Island Trees High School.

"He was just a regular, happy-go-lucky kid growing up in Levittown," Perez said of Thearle, who lived a few blocks from the accident scene.

Relatives of the victim declined to comment Saturday.

Perez said traffic signals change quickly on the turnpike, making it difficult for pedestrians to cross safely.

"You have to run to make it," she said.

"I'd rather drive than walk across that street," said Carolyn Beirne, 40, a clerk at the T-Bird gas station near the accident scene.

According to Nassau police, there have been five other pedestrian accidents on Hempstead Turnpike at or near the Gardiners intersection, between 2005 and 2010. None involved fatalities.

The entire length of Hempstead Turnpike in Nassau County, however, saw more pedestrian deaths than any other road in the metropolitan area between 2007 and 2009, according to a February study by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

With Keith Herbert