It has been nearly two months since the latest automobile-related fatality took place on Roslyn Road.
When the accident occurred, both Judy Jacobs (D – Woodbury) who represents the area in the Nassau County legislature and Wayne Wink, the Town of North Hempstead Clerk who is from Roslyn, both blamed the suddenly dangerous conditions on that busy thoroughfare on one constant malady: Too much speed.
The area of Roslyn Road where the April 1 accident took place is under the jurisdiction of Nassau County. The intersection of Locust Lane and Roslyn Road, where a March fatality occurred, is overseen by the Town of North Hempstead.
So far, the authorities have placed a speed limit sign on Roslyn Road that tells motorists just how fast they are traveling. After the April accident, a sign that directs traffic to Locust Lane and for continuing on Roslyn Road has also been placed on the northbound side of the road.
In April, Jacobs praised the work by Nassau County officials in their diligence on the problem.
Recently, Jacobs received an email from Aryeh Lemberger of the Nassau County Department of Public Work updating the situation.
“The construction group is getting ready to pour foundations for the signs and speed awareness devices [on Roslyn Road],” the letter stated. “Once those are poured there is a 28-day minimum cure time, so it may be that there is a lull in activity for a while. Also, some of the equipment has not yet been received by the manufacturer. [The] bottom line is the construction group is gearing up and should start shortly.”
Since the first fatal accident, highway police, P.O.P. police, speed signs and radar guns have been placed in the area.
Also last month, Jacobs maintained that Roslyn Road needs more of the same: Radars, speed enforcement, speed signs, another speed trailer, re-marking current surface markings and also having police on motorcycles in addition to those already in patrol cars.
Such improvements, Jacobs said, would represent phase one of the work needed on Roslyn Road.
Phase two, she added, would be to eliminate the cut-off road at the Roslyn Road and Locust Lane intersection and replacing it with a right turn lane onto Locust Lane.
That would lead to the main improvement, which would be the installation of two traffic lights on Roslyn Road, with one of them, as noted, at that same intersection of Roslyn Road and Locust Lane.
Such traffic lights, Jacobs claimed, would get drivers to slow down and force them into more normal driving habits.
“I have seen the wonders of traffic lights,” Jacobs told The Roslyn News in April. “They slow people down.”
Wink, too, called for the installation of red lights on Roslyn Road. But he added that drivers, ultimately, are responsible for both their safety and the safety of others and extreme prudence is called for when driving on Roslyn Road or any major or minor road.
