Dangerous Roads newsletter: Long Island's deadliest day vs. this city's 0 deaths in 9 years

It took three separate fatal car crashes to make last Wednesday the deadliest day on Long Island's roads so far in 2026. Less than four months in, at least 40 people have died in crashes on Long Island this year.

If Hoboken, New Jersey, had even one fatal crash in 2026, it would be that city's deadliest day in more than nine years. 

The northeastern New Jersey city has become a sort of poster child for the "Vision Zero" movement, which began in Sweden about three decades ago. Vision Zero takes a multifaceted approach to improving road safety, including through innovative street design, increased police enforcement and heightened public education, with the ultimate goal of completely eliminating traffic fatalities.

Although many municipalities, including New York City, have significantly reduced fatalities since implementing a Vision Zero plan, it's somewhat unusual for a densely populated city to be able to boast that it's already achieved its goal of eliminating road deaths. To put that it into context, a U.S. city with a population the size of Hoboken's can expect around 7.5 traffic fatalities a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To be sure, there are several big differences between Long Island and Hoboken that keep it from being an apples to apples comparison. Hoboken is about 1 square mile — an area roughly the size of Malverne, where two people were killed in a crash last month. It's also home to about 60,000 people — approximately the same population as the Village of Hempstead, which, has seen two fatal crashes already this year, within days of each other in March and April, according to Newsday's fatality database.

But, in addition to both bordering New York City, there is one thing Long Island and Hoboken have in common: At least up until a decade ago, both had a reputation for dangerous roads, particularly as it came to pedestrians. In the five years before Hoboken launched its Vision Zero initiative in 2019, three people were killed in crashes in the city's streets, and another 376 were injured, officials said. 

And so Hoboken officials, working with their Vision Zero task force, completely transformed the way people moved around their city. They added protected bike lanes, extended curbs at crosswalks, reduced speed limits, and "daylit" intersections, where parking is prohibited near street corners. The result: not a single person has been killed in a motor vehicle crash in Hoboken since Jan. 17, 2017. 

Andrew Wilson, executive director of Bike Hoboken, an advocacy group that was part of the city's Vision Zero task force, said, while Long Island may be different, some of the lessons of Hoboken's success are universal.

Wilson said, rather than wait for the next fatality to happen and then reacting to it, municipalities need to get ahead of crashes — zeroing in on where and why they happen and figuring out ways to prevent them, or at least lessen their severity. Key to that approach, Wilson said, is prioritizing those most vulnerable to crashes, including pedestrians and cyclists.

Thinking of those outside of vehicles, instead "of just moving cars through an environment as quickly as possible, you're going to reduce injuries and deaths," he said.

The three crashes that made last Wednesday Long Island's deadliest day for crashes this year involved a 48-year-old motorist who lost control of his vehicle in East Moriches; a 39-year-old motorcyclist hit by a turning driver in Bohemia; and a 21-year-old pedestrian who was struck in Brentwood by a driver. 

Maybe it's unrealistic to think any one thing could have prevented all three of those deaths. But preventing even one of them would have kept it from being Long Island's deadliest day of 2026 — so far.

Readers speak up

This reader appreciated Newsday bringing attention to the challenges faced by Long Island cyclists, as illustrated by Nassau County's decision to scrap a planned bike lane project on a street where a cyclist was recently killed.

Thanks for standing up for biking. That ratio of 4,100 miles of roadway and 5.5 miles of bike lanes in Nassau County says it all. But I'll keep fighting, with an extra dose of inspiration from Newsday.

Kevin Kelley, Atlantic Beach

What inspires you to care about Long Island's dangerous roads? 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.