Dangerous roads newsletter: Worst Long Island roads by crashes

Long Island’s gridwork of roads and parkways are relied on by nearly 3 million residents daily. NextLI took a look at the data to understand which of the region’s more than 24,000 roads had the most crashes, and also which had the most crashes when accounting for traffic.

Comparing the thoroughfares

The Southern State Parkway had the most reported crashes. Accounting for traffic, however, Sunrise Highway led Long Island roads, with a crash rate more than double the next highest.

For every hundred vehicles per day moving on Sunrise Highway, stretching from the Queens-Nassau border to Montauk, there was an average of five reported crashes in 2023. The crash rate for the Southern State Parkway was two crashes per hundred vehicles, while both the LIE and Northern State Parkway recorded a crash rate of one per hundred vehicles traveled each.

Southern State Parkway

The Southern State Parkway has consistently had the highest number of crashes on any single road over a decade, with more than 42,700 reported, according to state data. Between 2012 and the end of 2023, 137 people died and 846 were seriously injured in crashes on the winding 25½-mile-long parkway.

It has also recorded a sharp uptick in traffic volume in recent years. Not only was traffic volume in 2023 up 7.4% since 2022, traffic levels have surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

Long Island Expressway

The busiest road in the region is the Long Island Expressway, with 184,984 vehicles a day traveling on average between Exits 33 and 34 in 2023. The 70.8-mile-long highway recorded 37,770 crashes since 2012. As of 2023, 82 people were killed and 682 severely injured on the LIE.

Sunrise Highway

Since 2012, 83 people have died on Sunrise Highway in crashes and 459 seriously injured. With far fewer vehicles traveling on it compared with the Southern State and LIE, Route 27 — its other name — between Valley Stream and Shinnecock Hills, is one of the most dangerous when accounting for traffic and length of the road.

Behind the scenes of the map

Another way to look at the state traffic crash data is with our interactive map that shows all reported motor vehicle crashes on Long Island from Jan. 1, 2022, to the end of 2024. Using that, you can see the dangerous areas in your neighborhood.

The idea for building an interactive map with all the motor vehicle crash data Newsday obtained came from trying to answer some questions — where do most of the crashes we report on take place? Are there specific intersections or exit ramps that stand out? How is our road safety today compared to pre-pandemic years? We figured our readers might have these questions too.

Taking several months to build, the map allows readers to explore their own neighborhoods over the last three years. Each point on the map represents a crash, color-coded to indicate if there was a fatality or injury involved, in addition to information on time of day and cause of collision. We intend on updating this map as we continue to obtain the latest data from the state Department of Transportation and encourage readers to write us with their findings.

By Karthika Namboothiri

Karthika.Namboothiri@newsday.com