Traffic light near West Islip High School spurred by critical injury

A new traffic light has been installed at Montauk Highway and Barberry Road, an intersection near West Islip High School where a student was critically injured in 2011 while walking to school.

State Sen. Phil Boyle (R-Islip) announced the new traffic light in a media release this week, and credited his predecessor, former Sen. Owen Johnson, with laying the groundwork to get the light installed and make the intersection a safer place for pedestrians.

In October 2011, then-16-year-old Christopher Wilson was injured when he was struck by a 1996 Buick Century while crossing Montauk Highway about 7 a.m. on his way to school.

Aside from that incident, Boyle said there have been several motor vehicle crashes at the intersection.

The New York State Department of Transportation approved installing the traffic light, which Boyle said cost about $150,000, after a traffic study was done.

“We made the point that after the near-tragedy of Christopher that we didn’t want anything like this happening again,” Boyle said. “We asked [the Department of Transportation] to do a study, and they found that it was certainly needed, given the speed of the cars coming around the bend on Montauk Highway.”