In response to the tragic car crash on May 20 that claimed the lives of five Farmingdale teens—Tristan Reichle, Jesse Romero, Carly Lonnborg, Noah Francis, and Cody Talanian—New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a series of safety measures that will be implemented on Conklin Street.
“It is clear that more must be done to help ensure the safety of drivers and residents in the area around Conklin Street,” Cuomo writes in his letter to Farmingdale Mayor Ralph Ekstrand. “My administration will continue to take every available action we can through engineering, education, and enforcement to avoid tragic accidents like this in the future.”
In the letter, Cuomo said that this week the state has installed two speed controller trailers to inform motorists of their speed and encourage them to obey posted speed limits.
“As students come home from college and high schools wind down their academic years with proms and other celebrations, it is important to remind our young people of the responsibility of driving and the dangers of speeding, drag racing, distracted driving and drinking,” Cuomo continued.
Additionally, Cuomo goes on to say that in an effort to prevent future accidents, the state plans on installing new radar technology that is intended to utilize traffic signals to control a motorist’s speed.
According to Cuomo, the state will install the first of these devices at the corner of Conklin and Walnut streets, near the site of the accident. The radar is intended to identify speeding vehicles, which will trigger the connected traffic signal to switch to red, forcing the driver to come to a stop.
He added that the state will also conduct a traffic study and review the possibility of modifying the lanes on Conklin Street to add additional traffic calming measures, which include reducing lane widths or eliminating excess lanes, increasing median widths, creating turn lanes and adding traffic signals.
“Keeping New York’s young drivers safe is critically important,” Cuomo concludes. “My administration will continue to take every available action we can through engineering, education and enforcement to avoid tragic accidents like this in the future.”
