Navigating the Dangers of the Southern State Parkway Near Hempstead
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By Melissa DeFrank
Nassau News Staff Writer
According to the New York State Department of Transportation, the worst 5 percent of crash-prone sites on Long Island included three parts of the Southern State Parkway in or near Hempstead.
The Southern State Parkway has recently been named the most dangerous state road on Long Island.
Hofstra University and the Village of Hempstead are very close to the Southern State Parkway and residents of the area depend on the parkway to a main route of travel around Long Island.
In Hempstead and Uniondale, there are exits to the parkway off from Hempstead Turnpike and there is access through the Meadowbrook Parkway.
The Southern State has many sharp curves causing a portion of the road to be nicknamed “Bloody Alley.” This part of the parkway is in Nassau County and includes the exit ramp for the Meadowbrook Parkway, which is very close to Hempstead.
The accident rate on the Parkway has doubled in one year. According to a DOT report, the worst 5 percent of crash-prone sites on Long Island included three parts of the Southern State that are all located in or near Hempstead.
The first is at the intersection with Peninsula Boulevard, in South Hempstead; another one is located east of Hempstead Avenue, in West Hempstead; and one at the Wantagh Parkway, in North Wantagh.
The NYSDOT is working on many improvements for the Southern State. It is important to note that most of these projects will not be completed for years to come.
Residents say that the people who drive on the parkway forget that the road is very narrow, and drive along it as if they are driving on the wider Long Island Expressway.
Related Links
- Check out Nassau County, NY, Roads, a blog that indexes fatal accidents on Nassau County roads. Many of these accidents occur on the Southern State parkway. Blogs like this one provide the type of accident that occurs, making it easier to determine where and why these accidents are happening.
- A May press release from the New York State Department of Transportation listing construction projects on area roads.
- The Southern State Parkway has been rated for several of its components. Rate the Roads.com, a website that rates roads. gave the parkway an extremely low safety rating as well as an extremely bad rating for congestion. These two factors combined create problems on the road.
- This multimedia article was reported as final individual project for JRNL 80, Online Journalism, Section A, Fall 2007, Professor: Mo Krochmal, Hofstra University (e-mail: maurice.krochmal at hofstra.edu).
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