Sen. Chuck Schumer calls for safety audit of Long Island's deadliest roads
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- After 60 deaths in five years on Long Island roads, there are calls for the federal government to step in.
As CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reports, parents of children killed on the roads are crying out for change.
"My son's life should have never been lost because somebody wasn't looking straight ahead and was speeding," Diana Alati said.
The Alati family was waiting for 13-year-old son Andrew to get home from Island Trees Middle School and sensed something was wrong. When they got to Hempstead Turnpike, they found a crime scene surrounding the child.
"They were trying to resuscitate him, but he went into cardiac arrest, and there was so much damage done to his body that he had no chance of survival," Andrew's mother said.
According to the National Highway Traffic Administration, Long Island's deadliest roads include Hempstead Turnpike, as well as Jericho Turnpike/Middle Country Road, Montauk Highway/Sunrise Highway, State Route 25A and Suffolk County Route 80. Sections of each are responsible for more than 60 deaths in five years, nearly half cyclists and pedestrians.
"In the last seven weeks alone, we've had four pedestrians struck on Jericho Turnpike," New Hyde Park Mayor Christopher Devane said.
Those victims include a first grader and his mother, who were going to school.
Sen. Charles Schumer says he has a message to the feds.
"To do a safety audit of the very places on Long Island where we've seen too many deaths," he said.
Already, Schumer says $5 billion is earmarked for the bipartisan "Safe Streets for All."
"Improvements that can be made temporarily, low cost, while we're waiting for the millions of dollars of funding to come. That can be done with paint and with plastic bollards," said Elissa Kyle, with Vision Long Island.
She says narrowing the space for drivers would cause them to tame their speeds and more safely coexist with pedestrians and bicycles.
College student Kyra Gasparis was killed near Gardiners Avenue School in Levittown. She was an only child.
Her mother, Rena Gasparis, says the driver who struck her "was doing 23 miles over the limit in the school zone."
These grieving families are on a mission.
"I need to do this for him," Alati said.
Consequences of reckless driving in Andrew's name.
