Railroad crossing gates fixed in Valley Stream, Hewlett

Railroad crossing gates are working once again after being stuck for almost two hours in the down position Tuesday afternoon in Valley Stream and Hewlett, authorities said.

The malfunction was caused by a Long Island Power Authority outage that started about 2:30 p.m. and was repaired by about 4 p.m., said Salvatore Arena, a Long Island Rail Road spokesman.

There was no impact on the Far Rockaway LIRR line, he said.

For safety reasons, the down position is the automatic default position whenever there is a power problem, Arena said.

Nassau police had warned motorists to stay away from the railroad crossings.

Arena said the crossings affected were at Dubois Avenue in Valley Stream, and West Broadway and Franklin Avenue in Hewlett.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong location of the crossings.

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