Dangerous Roads newsletter: Bad drivers don't let governments off the hook

A common refrain I’ve heard from people since I became involved with Newsday’s Dangerous Roads project is: "It’s not the roads that are dangerous. It’s the drivers."

It’s true that most crashes can be attributed, at least in part, to driver behavior — including speeding, violating traffic laws, being intoxicated, distracted or just reckless. But let’s not let the roads off the hook that easy.

Because roadways have to meet minimum requirements set by government officials, their designs, however inadequate, rarely shoulder much blame for crashes — even if those same officials are quick to accept credit when design improvements lead to a reduction in crashes. The U.S. Department of Transportation, on its website, lists "consistent improvement of roadway design" as a key factor in the reduction of fatal crashes in the U.S. over the past 30-plus years.

If the design and condition of a roadway can be factors in reducing crashes, it stands to reason that they can also be factors in causing them. That much is apparent from Newsday’s reporting on the intersections on Long Island with the most serious or deadly crashes. Despite high volumes of traffic, many of them lacked such basic design elements as crosswalks and countdown timers.

It’s also no coincidence that the Southern State Parkway — known for its blind curves, hills and short on-ramps — had more crashes over the last decade than any other road on Long Island, according to state data.

Beyond just how a road is designed, how it’s maintained and improved over time can also be a major factor in the likelihood of a crash. In 2016, New York State’s highest court took on a case involving a 12-year-old boy whose family sued New York City after he was struck by a driver while riding his bike on a road that had, for years, been a source of complaints about speeding. But the city opted never to study or mitigate the problem.

The high court concluded that, while previous case law addressed government officials’ responsibility to keep roads "reasonably safe for people who obey the rules of the road," they are not absolved of their responsibility to keep roads in "reasonably safe condition [even when] a vehicle collision involves driver error, such as exceeding the speed limit."

This is all to say that, if government leaders want people to drive safely, they have a responsibility to give them safe roads on which to drive.

And yet, even as Long Island’s traffic fatality rate has, in recent years, exceeded the state average, a recent Newsday analysis found the Island spends the least money on its roads of any region in the state outside New York City, when measured relative to population or traffic volume.

There’s a lot we motorists can do to make Long Island’s roads safer: Stay within the speed limit, put away our phones when behind the wheel, stay sober and alert.

But we can't install stop signs, straighten potentially deadly curves, or fill potholes.

We count on others to do that for us.

Readers speak up

This week's email comes from a reader who appears fed up with what he calls government inaction about road safety on Long Island.

Politicians don’t care. Speeding, drag racing, high speed lane changes happen every day on every parkway. No cops. No drones. Technology could eliminate this nightmare. Let me reiterate ... Politicians don’t care.

Anthony Pantaleno, Lynbrook

Do you think lawmakers are doing their best to address the dangers of Long Island's roads? What should they do? Let us know at roads@newsday.com.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.