In addition to being home to Route 25, the region’s most dangerous road for walking two years in a row, Suffolk County has also been nationally recognized as the “worst place to ride” by Bicycling Magazine.

And sadly, it doesn’t seem like it will shake either title anytime soon. In the last two weeks alone:

• On May 2, 62 year-old Patrice Melley was struck while riding her bike on Main Road/Route 25 and had to be airlifted to a nearby hospital.
• 56 year-old Susan Restrepo of Coram succumbed to her injuries after having been struck on April 20 while walking along Route 25 by a driver that allegedly swerved to avoid hitting another vehicle.
• On April 21, 52 year-old Lora Rohner was fatally struck while walking on Route 110, Suffolk County’s second most dangerous road for walking, by the driver of an SUV making a left turn out of a parking lot.
• On April 27, bicyclist Peter Ryan was struck by an intoxicated, unlicensed driver on Route 105 in Riverhead.
• On May 1, 42 year-old Steven Preitz was fatally struck while riding his bicycle in Holstville.
• On May 2, 73 year-old Rosa Maria Sinchi was fatally struck while crossing North Bicycle Path in Port Jefferson Station.
• On May 5, 16 year-old John Luke was fatally struck while crossing Route 25A in Miller Place, one of the county’s most dangerous roads for walking.
• On April 25, 57 year-old Oscar Rivera was struck while crossing Bay Shore Road in Deer Park.

Tri-State, AARP and Vision Long Island have called for safety improvements to Route 25 and other roads like it for years. These arterials are designed to maximize vehicular throughput with little consideration for other users, and while they make up only 15 percent of the lane miles in region, they account for 53 percent of pedestrian fatalities. This recent spate of injuries and fatalities underscores the need to put the County’s Complete Streets Implementation Fund to use and for the New York State Department of Transportation to extend its safety improvement efforts on Route 25 into Suffolk.

An earlier version of this piece included an incident that occurred in Nassau County. This post was updated to include a more recent fatality in Suffolk County.