North Fork traffic study spurred by fatal limo crash

Since October, a traffic signal has guided vehicles at the corner of Route 48 and Depot Lane in Cutchogue — the site of a limousine crash that killed four friends on a winery trip three months earlier.

Suffolk County officials said the light was planned long before the crash to accommodate growing traffic on Long Island’s once-sleepy North Fork, but it’s one example of changes in recent months tied to the region’s swelling population and popularity.

At the time of the accident, flashing red lights on Depot Lane and flashing yellow lights on Route 48 alerted drivers to the intersection.

The July 18 deaths added urgency to talks underway in Southold for years about how to manage rising tourist traffic tied to a winery scene that has grown to 43 producers in recent years from a handful in the 1970s.

Southold Town police recently doubled the number of officers devoted to highway patrol from one to two, Chief Martin Flatley said earlier this month.

Southold Supervisor Scott Russell devoted a significant portion of his State of the Town address on Feb. 25 to the growth of the wine industry, saying Southold risks being overwhelmed by wineries and other craft beverage makers if town officials don’t plan for the future.

“I think we must do what we can to accommodate them to make sure they complement the community, not overwhelm it,” Russell said, adding that officials and residents should spend the next few months asking, “What do we want Southold to be five, 10, 20 years from now?”

Suffolk County Planning Commission chairwoman Jessica Casey said she met with Russell on Wednesday morning about commissioning a study of North Fork traffic congestion.

“Safety may come into play, because when you have that sort of congestion it can create and cause those kinds of accidents,” Casey said. She said she hopes to convene a meeting with officials from Southold, Riverhead and the county in April to talk about funding the study.

David Calone, former commission chairman, said members began planning the traffic study before the tragedy, but it caused them to expand the project’s scope to include safety.

A September crackdown on buses and limousines in Southold led police from multiple agencies to issue 34 violations to drivers of 17 vehicles. Police cited one bus driver for making an illegal U-turn at the same Cutchogue intersection where the four women died.