Incident location, Long Island
What Happened
A 43-year-old Hicksville man was fatally struck by three separate vehicles on the North Service Road of the Long Island Expressway in Jericho early Wednesday morning in a devastating sequence of collisions that unfolded just before sunrise. Newsday reported that Nassau County police identified the victim as Robert Dwyer, of Hicksville, following the approximately 6 a.m. incident near Open Street.
According to Newsday, Dwyer was walking eastbound on the North Service Road when he was first struck by a 79-year-old man behind the wheel of a 2023 Mazda. The collision did not end there. Dwyer was then struck a second time by a man driving a 2021 Alfa Romeo, and subsequently struck a third time by a woman operating a 2014 Mazda sedan — three separate vehicles hitting the same pedestrian in rapid succession during the pre-dawn hours on one of Nassau County’s busiest commuter corridors.
All three drivers remained at the scene following the collisions, according to Nassau County police. Their cooperation with investigators on scene is one of the few details confirmed in the initial reporting. Police did not release the identities of any of the three drivers, and investigators have not publicly disclosed what brought Dwyer onto the roadway on foot at that hour.
Nassau police did not provide additional information about the circumstances behind the incident, according to Newsday. It remains unclear whether the lighting conditions, Dwyer’s position on the roadway, or any other contributing factors have been identified as part of the ongoing investigation. The incident occurred around 6 a.m., a time when commuter traffic on the LIE service road begins to build and natural light is limited in mid-November.
The sequence of three distinct vehicles striking a single pedestrian underscores the particular danger of service road travel on foot during low-light commuter hours. The North Service Road in the Jericho area carries significant through traffic as an alternative route running parallel to I-495, and pedestrian access points along this stretch are limited.
Location & Road Context
The crash occurred on the North Service Road of the Long Island Expressway near Open Street in Jericho, a heavily trafficked stretch of road that serves as a parallel corridor to I-495 for commuters traveling through central Nassau County. The service road system along the LIE is designed primarily for vehicle access and provides limited pedestrian infrastructure, particularly in the Jericho area where commercial and suburban land uses dominate.
Our database shows 795 recorded incidents along the I-495 corridor, reflecting the sustained danger of this road and its surrounding service roads. Recent incidents on the expressway include a crash on I-495 on May 25, 2026, an overturned vehicle on I-495 on May 24, 2026, and multiple additional crashes in the same 24-hour period — illustrating how routinely dangerous this corridor remains for all users.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
As of the initial reporting, no charges have been announced against any of the three drivers involved in the fatal collision. Nassau County police have confirmed that all three remained at the scene — a legally and practically significant detail — but have released no further information about the circumstances leading to the crash or the direction of the investigation. The absence of additional detail from police at this stage suggests the investigation is active and ongoing.
The fact that three separate drivers struck the same pedestrian will likely be a central focus of the Nassau County investigation, as detectives work to reconstruct the sequence of events and determine whether any criminal liability attaches to one or more of the motorists involved.
Broader Impact
The Jericho fatality adds a grim data point to what Newsday has documented as a persistent and deadly pattern: a Newsday investigation found that traffic crashes killed more than 2,100 people on Long Island between 2014 and 2023 and seriously injured more than 16,000 others — an average of one crash causing death, injury, or significant property damage every seven minutes. Pedestrian fatalities on service roads, where foot traffic is not designed into the roadway infrastructure, represent a particularly acute vulnerability within that larger crisis.