Southampton Town Officials Search For Traffic Solutions

According to The Southampton Press, traffic concerns were the topic of the recent Town Board work session on August 1.

There have been two serious accidents in the last two years. July 29's fatal accident involving a Hampton Jitney in front of the jitney headquarters on County Road 39A in Southampton shut down the road between Majors Path and David White's Lane for four and a half hours, resulting in serious delays for commuter traffic that morning. The incident served as a fateful reminder, that though accidents are down since the 2008 widening of the highway, according to the Southampton Press, the situation is no closer to being resolved.

“When it’s a fatality, certain protocols immediately go into effect,” Southampton Town Police Chief Robert Pearce told the Southampton Press, “This one was horrific in nature, and the debris field stretched a quarter of a mile,” he added, referring to the crash that claimed the life of 29-year-old Carissa Castillo of Shirley. “The duty officer can send out traffic alerts, but the damage is done. It bogs down very quick.”

When a fatal accident occurs, the road cannot be cleared until the county coroners— who may be spread throughout Suffolk— arrive on the scene to note the condition of and claim the body, the Press reported. What often happens, however, is that the coroner's become trapped in the same traffic they are working their way toward resolving.

“The real problem is we don’t have alternative routes for traffic,” Councilwoman Bridget Fleming told the Southampton Press, “We are a one-road town. When that road is clogged, how do you get people off the island?”

Possible solutions posited by the board, the Press reported, included the introduction of permanent road signs that mark delays along the Sunrise Highway, the use of helicopters to get emergency crews to accident sites faster, and the use of speed cameras along the road to slow traffic.