Islip, NY — Crash Data, Roads, History & Law

How the roads got here

New York State Route 27, Sunrise Highway, is the town's principal state highway; the New York State Department of Transportation's official route description carries it "on Sunrise Highway to Valley Stream, Lynbrook, Rockville Centre, Freeport, Massapequa Park, North Babylon, Great River, North Patchogue" and onward toward Montauk Point.^[16] A parallel alignment, NY 27A, follows the older Merrick Road and Montauk Highway route; NYSDOT describes it running "Sunrise Highway and Carman Mill Road, on Carman Mill Road, Merrick Road and Montauk Highway to Babylon, Bay Shore, Islip, East Islip, Great River, Oakdale Exit," passing directly through several of the town's South Shore hamlets.^[17]

Three state parkways cross the town: the Southern State Parkway, the Sagtikos State Parkway and the Robert Moses Causeway. NYSDOT's official touring-route book lists the Robert Moses Causeway simply as "Robert Moses Causeway - Suffolk County," running from the mainland to the Robert Moses State Park complex on Fire Island, with the Sagtikos State Parkway continuing north to join the Sunken Meadow State Parkway and the Southern State Parkway running west to Nassau County and east to Heckscher State Park.^[19] Under the state's own jurisdictional table for these routes, all three are coded "OP&R," meaning legal jurisdiction belongs to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation rather than to the highway system, even though the same table marks them as "Maintained and Signed by NYSDOT."^[20]

Law and legal history

Since October 3, 1978, Town of Islip Code § 47A-3, "Liability of Town," has barred civil suits against the Town or its employees over a defective, unsafe or obstructed highway, street, bridge, culvert, sidewalk, crosswalk, traffic sign, signal, tree or other town-maintained property unless written notice of the condition "was actually given to the Town Clerk or Commissioner of Public Works" and the Town then failed, within a reasonable time, to repair or remove it; an identical written-notice requirement applies separately to claims arising from snow or ice on town-maintained property.^[14] The "Commissioner" named in the law heads the Town's Department of Public Works, which is Chapter 41 of the Town Code; Islip organizes its road-maintenance function as a Public Works Department rather than under a separately titled Highway Department or elected superintendent of highways.^[15]

In Flores v. Town of Islip, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on June 18, 2018, plaintiffs Ana Flores, Rene Flores, Maria Magdalena Hernandez and Magali Roman, together with Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change, sued the Town of Islip, the Islip Town Board and the Suffolk County Board of Elections.^[22] The case produced a published decision, 382 F. Supp. 3d 197 (E.D.N.Y. 2019), before U.S. District Judge Arthur D. Spatt.^[22] The suit did not go to trial: on October 14, 2020, U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary R. Brown approved a settlement under which Islip agreed to abolish its at-large Town Board election system and replace it with four single-member council districts beginning with the next town elections, making Islip "the fourth Long Island town in recent years to get rid of its at-large council system."^[23] Newsday reported that plaintiff Maria Magdalena Hernandez, a Brentwood resident, said in a statement that she was "so excited that we will now finally have representation for our Brentwood community."^[23]

Government, courts and policing

Two Suffolk County Police Department precincts split coverage of the town. The Third Precinct, headquartered at 1630 5th Avenue in Bay Shore, patrols "the hamlets of Bay Shore, Baywood, Brentwood, Brightwaters, Islip, Central Islip, East Islip, West Islip, and Islip Terrace."^[24][26] The Fifth Precinct, headquartered at 125 Waverly Avenue in Patchogue, "renders patrol and other police service to the southern portion of Brookhaven Town, the eastern portion of Islip Town, and the incorporated villages of Patchogue and Bellport" -- meaning the town's easternmost hamlets fall under the Fifth Precinct rather than the Third.^[25][26]

Long Island MacArthur Airport, in the town's Ronkonkoma section, is organized as a Town department alongside the Assessor, Comptroller and Public Works, and the Town's own website states plainly, "The Town of Islip owns and operates MacArthur Airport (ISP), located in Ronkonkoma, 50 miles outside New York City."^[21] Its Department of Aviation "is led by the Commissioner of Aviation and Transportation, who works closely with the Town Board to manage and steward the airport," with divisions covering airport operations, custodial services, law enforcement and maintenance.^[21] The airport covers 1,311 acres with three runways and two helipads, and in early 2011 the Federal Aviation Administration designated it an "Official Metro Airport," grouping it with LaGuardia, JFK and Newark in travel-search results.^[21]

Railroad and transit

Today, MacArthur Airport's own materials describe an "LIRR MacArthur Airport Package" offering "a convenient, discounted rail/shuttle option to/from Ronkonkoma Train station, just 1.5 miles from the airport," linking the Ronkonkoma Branch to the terminal.^[21]

The Mobro 4000 garbage barge

In late March 1987, a barge -- loaded with roughly 3,100 tons of baled Islip Town and New York City trash and towed by the tug Break of Dawn -- left Long Island in search of an out-of-state dump, at a time when Long Island landfill capacity was under mounting pressure.^[10][12] The New York Times reported that after more than eight weeks of wandering the barge returned to New York Harbor still "rejected by North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Florida, as well as Mexico, Belize and the Bahamas," with only "an invitation to return to Islip, L.I., where its 60-day, 6,000-mile odyssey began."^[10][11] Newsday later reported that Long Island and New York State officials "negotiated a deal to have the garbage burned in Brooklyn with its ash buried in an Islip Town landfill," ending the barge's voyage.^[13] Writing 30 years later, Newsday described the episode -- which drew national headlines and jokes from late-night television -- as a turning point that helped push Long Island toward greater recycling, while noting that the region's per-person waste generation still exceeded the national average three decades on.^[12][13]