State DOT to survey Jericho Tpke. stretch

The New York State Department of Transportation plans to investigate conditions along a stretch of Jericho Turnpike after a St. Patrick's Day accident that killed a motorcyclist.

The decision came after a request from Village of Westbury Mayor Peter I. Cavallaro for the state to conduct a traffic study of the roadway from Glen Cove Road east to the Oyster Bay town line.

Cavallaro also wants the speed limit on that portion of the state road to be reduced from 55 mph to 40 mph, and a traffic light to be installed at the entrance to Hicks Nursery at 100 Jericho Tpke.

Muttontown resident Ian Axelrod, 45, died March 17 at that location after the motorcycle he was driving east on Jericho Turnpike collided with a Jeep. The driver of the Jeep was traveling westbound on the turnpike and trying to turn left into the nursery parking lot, Nassau County police said. No charges were filed.

"It's a bad situation," Cavallaro said. "If you survey Jericho Turnpike probably from the Queens border into Huntington, it's probably the only stretch that is still 55 mph." The speed limit elsewhere along the road varies from 30 to 40 mph, he said.

The portion of the road where the speed limit increases to 55 mph "is no longer a rural area by any stretch of the imagination," Cavallaro wrote to DOT regional director Subi Chakraborti. "There are numerous intersecting secondary roads, numerous private drives, numerous businesses, schools and places of worship which exist in this corridor."

The DOT receives about 1,000 requests each year to adjust or change traffic control measures, said Eileen W. Peters, public information officer for the department's Long Island region. The agency will "undertake a comprehensive traffic safety evaluation" that should be completed this year, she said.

Stephen Hicks, president of Hicks Nurseries Inc., said a left-turn lane already exists at the site of the accident and the business has twice reconfigured its parking lot after requests from the transportation department.

Hicks said he would support the state if the agency ruled a light is warranted. "If the state felt this (a traffic light) was what was needed to improve safety, I would certainly not want to stand in the way of safety," Hicks said.