Long Island Rep. Laura Gillen is urging the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to hold an emergency hearing on the nationwide “surge” in deadly traffic accidents — after an unsettling investigation revealed that a serious car crash occurs every seven minutes on Long Island.
“The failure to secure our roads has led to thousands of lives being cut short, families being ripped apart, and a terrible void being left in too many communities,” Gillen wrote in her letter compelling the committee to take action.
The Democratic lawmaker’s campaign comes after an investigation by Newsday revealed that Long Island drivers get into a serious accident every seven minutes — killing more than 2,100 people and injuring 16,000 others on the roads between 2014 and 2023.
Car crashes are the leading cause of accidental death among young people under the age of 20 on Long Island, and the second-leading cause for all Long Islanders under the age of eighty, next to overdoses, according to the CDC…