Officials call for traffic study of Merrick Road

Legislator Bill Gaylor, left, Mayor Ed Fare and Valley Stream Public Safety Supervisor Vincent Cusumano gathered at the intersection of West Merrick Road and Liberty Boulevard to discuss the village’s request for a county-funded safety survey of the roadway.

Micah Danney/Herald

Nassau County Legislator Bill Gaylor joined Mayor Ed Fare, Village Clerk Bob Barra and Public Safety Supervisor Vincent Cusumano at Arlington Park on Feb. 25 to announce a proposal for a study of Merrick Road, which is owned by the county.

“The village wants to ask the county for help on a few things,” Fare said. “One, I’d like to ask the county legislator if he can find a way to fund a traffic survey on Merrick Road from Rosedale to Lynbrook, surveying whatever it might be — crosswalks, lights, timing of lights, intersections — whatever the county deems necessary. They’re the experts … I’m asking the legislator to bring our village concerns to the county on that.”

Fare cited the absence of a Nassau County Police car devoted to enforcing traffic laws on Merrick Road as another matter to be addressed, noting that there used to be one. “Their sole purpose was to write tickets,” he said. “They weren’t running to all these automatic alarms, to an alarm going off at a house, to Green Acres — it was a dedicated enforcement car. There’s other streets we could use it on, but the Merrick Road corridor is pretty important.”

Fare said the village intended to ask the county if the 5th Precinct could restore a patrol car to that role, saying, “there seems to be a lot of speeding, illegal U-turns, etcetera.” Fare suggested the possibility of red light cameras, based on what the county might deem necessary.

Fare noted the man who was fatally struck on Feb. 22 as he tried to cross West Merrick Road, within sight of the park where Fare and the other officials stood. The mayor also recalled the death of 12-year-old Zachary Ranftle on Dec. 11, 2014, at the intersection of West Merrick Road and South Franklin Avenue. “As the mayor of the Village of Valley Stream, I too am outraged that the gentleman who hit and killed Zachary Ranftle only got a six-month sentence,” he said, noting the pending legislation in Albany that would toughen penalties for drivers with a suspended or revoked license who kill or seriously injure others. Gaylor said that several other crashes and injured pedestrians on Merrick Road in recent years added to the urgency of addressing safety along the stretch.

“One is too many, it really is,” Gaylor said.