DOT looking into dicey Huntington Station intersection

There have been many accidents over the years at the intersection of Dix Hills Road and Jericho Turnpike in Huntington Station. This is a five-way intersection with three traffic signals and no turning arrows. Dix Hills Road runs north-south across Jericho, but the road doglegs and does not line up. When Dix Hills gets the green light, vehicles that are trying to turn left onto Jericho wait in the middle of Jericho haphazardly while other cars going "straight" on Dix Hills Road jockey around them on either side. Many of us have written to the town to rectify this dangerous intersection, but no action has been taken.

- Lynda Weinstein, Huntington

We know this intersection well and agree with Mrs. Weinstein and several other readers who wrote about the same problem. It's chaos when traffic on Dix Hills Road gets the green light because the road doglegs when it crosses Jericho, and drivers are anxious to get through the intersection before the light turns red.

Whether something will be done to remedy the problem depends on how the state Department of Transportation will interpret the findings of its investigation of the site that's under way. "We are right in the middle of a study of that entire intersection," DOT spokeswoman Eileen Peters said. A similar study was done many years ago, but the data is too old to be useful, she said. For the current investigation, on-site observers are collecting hours of data on the traffic patterns, and the errors drivers make in the intersection. They'll analyze three years of accidents to see if there's something common that drivers are doing wrong to cause the crashes and figure out what improvements if any are needed to make the roads safer, such as turn arrows.

Peters said the study will be completed by the end of fall, and she'll share the results then. Stay tuned.