On the Napeague stretch, an approximately five-mile expanse of Route 27 that bisects Napeague State Park and connects Montauk and Amagansett, numerous traffic accidents over the years have proven deadly.
Shortly after 11 a.m. on Sunday, yet another accident on Napeague claimed the life of a 70-year-old orthopedic surgeon who had been riding a bicycle east in the vicinity of the Lobster Roll restaurant. Dr. Russell Windsor, an Amagansett homeowner, died at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital soon after the accident.
According to the East Hampton Town Police Department, the man whose car struck him, Mohammad Rahman, a 45-year-old ride-share driver from Holbrook, “remained at the scene and is cooperating fully with the investigation. No criminality is suspected at this time.” Mr. Rahman had been eastbound in a 2011 Toyota Sienna when the bicyclist “entered the roadway from the eastbound shoulder of the road, causing the crash to occur,” police said.
Route 27 was closed in both directions for several hours on Sunday, leaving travelers at a standstill on an otherwise beautiful, holiday-weekend beach day, as detectives investigated the accident.
Around 1 p.m., police posted a statement on Facebook, advising drivers to “please avoid the area unless absolutely necessary as there will be no detour around the scene at certain times as investigators work the scene.”
On Tuesday, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc encouraged people “to consider the fact that our roadways will now be very busy. . . . Motorists need to take that into consideration. Don’t be in a hurry. Be safe.” For the holiday weekend, he said, the town had instituted a “short-form ticket” policy. Police wrote more than 50 of them, he said, not including citations handed out by Marine Patrol, code enforcement, and fire marshals.
A 55-mile-per-hour speed limit covers much of Napeague, but locals know that people often drive above that limit, particularly where a dotted yellow line permits passing on the two-lane highway. Compounding that, patrons of popular restaurants like the Lobster Roll and the Clam Bar often park along the side of the road, spilling over from full parking lots.
The department is still actively investigating the accident, said Detective Sgt. Ryan Hogan of the town police. He declined to comment on the often dangerous conditions on Napeague.
The Star reported in June 2010 that a Manorville man had been charged with felony manslaughter after crashing the motorbike he was driving, with his pregnant fiancée riding behind him. A police officer had tried to pull him over, but the driver would not stop, instead speeding away west at around 80 miles per hour before striking a utility pole.
In June 2005, a Queens attorney with almost three times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood was indicted on 18 charges after his Ford S.U.V. crossed into oncoming traffic on the stretch. A 65-year-old Belgian tourist died in the crash, which also injured three others. The Star reported that the highway “was completely sealed off . . . making it impossible for motorists to leave or reach” Montauk.
In July 2003, town police reported 58 crashes across town in the span of one week, including a fatal accident in which an 88-year-old woman attempting to turn left from a side street onto the road hit a dump truck. When police arrived, The Star reported, they found both the car and the truck in woods off the westbound side of the highway. “She was on her way to get a cup of coffee and the newspaper,” the woman’s grandson said later.
Fatal crashes on Napeague also claimed the lives of local people in June 1990 and December 1957, as recorded in The Star’s archives.
After the accident on Sunday, Mr. Rahman’s vehicle was impounded for a safety inspection. On Monday afternoon, remnants of bicycle tire and broken glass remained in the shoulder of the road, near where leftover police caution-tape flapped in the breeze.
Anyone with further information has been asked to contact East Hampton Town detectives at 631-537-7575.
With reporting by Christopher Walsh
This story has been updated to correct the speed limit on Napeague.