Hurt Crossing Highway

A pedestrian was flown to Stony Brook University Hospital with a head injury Saturday night after being hit by a car in Bridgehampton.

Michael McCrum of Bridgehampton, 61, was struck at about 10:30 p.m. as he was crossing Main Street in front of Starbucks, according to Southampton Town police. Two people who were crossing with him were not injured. Mr. McCrum was flown by medevac helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening. On Sunday morning, his condition was reported to be serious, but by Monday it had been upgraded to good, and he was released from the hospital that night.

No charges were filed following the crash, but Det. Sgt. Lisa Costa said a Department of Motor Vehicles review had been requested. The driver of the car, a 2002 Cadillac sedan, was James Halsey, 87, of Bridgehampton.

Sergeant Costa said Mr. Halsey was traveling north on Ocean Avenue and attempting to turn left onto westbound Main Street when the accident happened.

The site is not far from the Main Street crosswalk near the Bridgehampton Post Office where Anna Pump, the longtime proprietor of Loaves & Fishes in Sagaponack and a well-known chef and cookbook author, was struck by a pickup truck last October. That accident happened at 10 p.m., almost the same time as Saturday’s. Ms. Pump did not survive her injuries.

The Main Street site, where the speed limit is 30 miles per hour, is also the place where Heywood Shelley of Sag Harbor was struck in January 2009 by a westbound car traveling at least 40 miles per hour Mr. Shelley, who was then 82, was crossing the street to the parking lot behind Starbucks after having dinner at Almond restaurant. He spent nine months in an intensive care unit and remains wheelchair-bound.

“At the time I believe the police officers on the scene said they knew that was a very bad stretch,” Alexandra Shelley, his daughter, said yesterday. She suggested there should be a crosswalk in that spot.

A lighted crosswalk does, in fact, exist a short distance to the west of where both Mr. McCrum and Mr. Shelley were struck.

Ms. Shelley recommended stronger police presence to enforce the speed limit. “You go from what seems to be a highway onto Main Street with no notice . . . it’s problematic,” she said.

Eileen Peters of the State Department of Transportation said a series of improvements had been made in the last three years to Bridgehampton Main Street, including pedestrian-crossing warning signs, new parking signs, and “no stopping” signs. After Ms. Pump’s death, she said, state engineers again evaluated the area, replacing some missing signs and reviewing five years’ worth of pedestrian crashes. They did not find that a traffic signal at the post office crossing was necessary, Ms. Peters said.

A separate study was done to consider extending the school speed zone, along with other safety measures, resulting in the installation of reflecting signs at the crosswalks. Ms. Peters said there are also plans to relocate signs warning that a school is ahead. A lighted crosswalk was recently installed as well, which she said helps to “provide a safer link from the municipal parking on the south side of Montauk Highway with the library and other businesses on the north side.”