What Happened
A pedestrian was struck and killed by a Long Island Rail Road train at the Islip Avenue grade crossing in Central Islip on Sunday afternoon, July 26, 2026, according to Newsday. The collision occurred at approximately 1:53 p.m., MTA spokeswoman Joana Flores confirmed.
The train involved was Train 9955, operating scheduled westbound service from Ronkonkoma to Hicksville on the LIRR’s Ronkonkoma Branch. The fatal strike occurred at the Islip Avenue grade crossing — the point where Islip Avenue intersects directly with the tracks at street level. The victim’s identity had not been released as of Sunday evening.
Following the collision, service on the Ronkonkoma Branch was partially suspended between Wyandanch and Ronkonkoma, Newsday reported. By late Sunday afternoon, service had been mostly restored, though some trains were still running between 10 and 15 minutes behind schedule. The disruption compounded an already difficult weekend for LIRR commuters: the railroad had also conducted planned maintenance on the Ronkonkoma line and several other lines over the weekend, which had separately caused a suspension of service between Hicksville and Jamaica that was not expected to lift until early Monday.
Sunday’s fatality marks the fourth time this year that a person has been struck and killed by an LIRR train, according to Newsday. The three previous fatal incidents in 2026 involved a 21-year-old man killed in Farmingdale in April, a 17-year-old girl killed in Massapequa in June, and another person killed in Sayville earlier in July. In a non-fatal incident in February, an LIRR train struck a stalled vehicle in East Farmingdale, but the driver managed to escape before the collision.
Location & Road Context
The Islip Avenue grade crossing in Central Islip sits along the LIRR’s heavily traveled Ronkonkoma Branch, where the road meets the tracks at ground level. The crossing has a deadly history: at least two other fatal crashes have occurred there since 2012, both involving motor vehicles on the tracks — one in 2012 and one in May 2013. Grade crossings like this one remain among the most hazardous points on Long Island’s rail network, where pedestrian and vehicle traffic intersects with high-speed train service.
The MTA has announced plans to eliminate a number of grade crossings on Long Island by constructing concrete underpasses to route vehicle traffic beneath the tracks. Two crossings near Sunday’s fatal site are among those slated for elimination: one approximately 1.5 miles to the east at Lowell Avenue in Central Islip, and another roughly 2.5 miles to the west at Wicks Road/Fifth Avenue in Brentwood. The Islip Avenue crossing itself, however, is not currently listed among the crossings targeted for removal.
Broader Impact
The Islip Avenue crossing’s documented history — at least three fatal incidents since 2012, now including a pedestrian death — raises pointed questions about why it has not been added to the MTA’s grade crossing elimination list alongside the nearby Lowell Avenue and Wicks Road/Fifth Avenue sites. The MTA’s underpass program is designed specifically to address the kind of recurring danger that has made this stretch of the Ronkonkoma Branch corridor one of the deadliest on Long Island for those on foot or in vehicles near the tracks.