Privacy update — September 18, 2026: Identifying details have been removed under our victim privacy policy.
What Happened
A 12-year-old girl was struck by a 2015 Jeep Wrangler while crossing Main Street in Center Moriches on County Road 80/Montauk Highway, one day before her summer vacation began, according to The Suffolk County News. She was crossing with a friend at the time of the collision. The date placed the crash in June 2026, as the new school year opened in early September.
That crash was not an isolated event on the corridor. Since September 2025, at least eight separate crashes have been recorded along Montauk Highway between East Moriches and the intersection with William Floyd Parkway, per the Suffolk County News report published September 7, 2026.
The eight crashes include: a motorcyclist colliding head-on with a Tesla; a hit-and-run in which the driver was later arrested; a single-vehicle crash near Bay Avenue in which the driver died; a three-car collision near Kalers Pond in which one driver was charged with operating a vehicle while impaired by drugs; a separate three-car crash involving two 24-year-old drivers; a 19-year-old motorcyclist killed when he struck a 2014 Ram 1500 pickup truck beside James Hawkins Road; a 34-year-old struck by an SUV while attempting to cross Montauk Highway at William Floyd Parkway; and a 19-year-old driver who fell asleep and struck the LIRR trestle in Center Moriches.
The Walk Safe LI Coalition and the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee recorded 642 pedestrians struck by vehicles in Suffolk County between October 2024 and September 2025. Those crashes produced 573 non-fatal injuries and 33 fatalities. Speed, large trucks, and driver age ranked as contributing factors well above alcohol or substance-related causes.
The New York Times’ June 2026 investigative report, “Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and SUVs,” found that after a steady decline since 2009, the annual number of pedestrians killed in the United States has risen 75 percent. A forensic researcher told the Times: “Before the driver knows what’s happened, the pedestrian’s under the wheels.” Current popular truck models — Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra, Toyota Tacoma, and Toyota Tundra — weigh between 4,000 and 7,000 pounds and stand an average of 4 feet higher than previous generations. That shift moves the point of impact from a pedestrian’s torso to above their center of gravity, increasing fatality likelihood. Wider roof-support pillars and larger side-view mirrors on these models also create blind spots across the front and left side of the vehicle, where pedestrian strikes most often occur, the Times report found.
Following the crash in June, residents posted extensively on Facebook and the Center Moriches Fire Department homepage citing speeding large vehicles on Main Street and what they described as insufficient enforcement of posted speed limits, per the Suffolk County News account.
Location & Road Context
County Road 80 runs as Montauk Highway through East Moriches, then becomes Main Street through Center Moriches and Moriches/Mastic before rejoining the highway designation eastward. The road carries a mix of high-speed through traffic and local pedestrian activity, including three elementary schools in East Moriches, Center Moriches, and Moriches/Mastic. Vehicles heading east come off a long stretch with a higher posted speed limit and often fail to decelerate before entering populated village sections where curves limit sight lines, the Suffolk County News reported.
Crosswalks at County Road intersections with Railroad Avenue have defined markings and signals. Side-street crosswalks maintained by the Town of Brookhaven — at Beach Fern Street, Banks, Union, and Canal — connecting to Montauk Highway are worn, barely visible, or nonexistent. The sidewalk passing through the elevated tunnel above the rail trestle between Senix Avenue and Old Neck Road is broken, pushing pedestrians onto a narrow shoulder alongside moving traffic. Suffolk County’s local incident database shows 930 recorded accidents in the county overall.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
In the hit-and-run crash along the Montauk Highway corridor since September 2025, one driver was subsequently arrested, per the Suffolk County News. In the three-car crash near Kalers Pond, one driver was charged with operating a vehicle while impaired by drugs. No further arraignment dates, bail figures, or statutory charges were provided in the source report. The crash involving the 12-year-old girl has not been listed as producing an arrest or charge in the available record.