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.
But the scourge goes beyond her district, Gillen said, declaring it a “national crisis.”
“The deadly surge in traffic fatalities over the past decade demands our swift federal attention and intervention,” Gillen wrote to the House standing committee.
“This is not just a local problem; it is a national crisis.”
The New York congresswoman pointed out that motor vehicle fatalities have risen sharply over the past decade across the country — jumping 25% from 15,035 deaths in the first half of 2014 to 18,720 during the same period in 2024.
The surge is despite billions in federal funding aimed at improving road safety.
“We can and must do much more,” Gillen wrote.
This is the second letter Gillen has written since Newsday’s investigation.
In March, she wrote to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, calling for a federal study and policy recommendations to inform future transportation legislation.
“I request the U.S. Department of Transportation conduct an immediate investigation into this deadly surge and outline a plan of action to help prevent more tragedies,” she wrote to Duffy, describing the crisis as “alarming” and “unacceptable.”
Experts say several factors are behind the rise in deaths and injuries on the road, including impaired and distracted driving, limited public transit access, and the absence of protected bike lanes.
However, while the federal government provides funding and sets standards, most of Long Island’s roads are maintained by state and local governments.
The New York State Department of Transportation oversees just a tenth of the Island’s lane miles, with the rest falling to counties, towns, villages, and cities.
Now, as Congress is working on the next round of federal road funding to replace the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — set to expire in fiscal year 2026 — Gillen said the moment to act is now.
Under the current infrastructure law, New York is slated to receive about $13.5 billion in federal highway funds over five years — a figure Gillen said must be matched with stronger oversight and a national strategy to reverse the deadly trend.
