Sound Off: Safety Improvements for Southern State Parkway

In the wake of the crash that took the lives of two Hempstead men on the Southern State Parkway in Merrick Sunday morning, motorists are calling for improvements to be made. 

“The southern snake is what I call it. It’s like this. It always turns. If you’re not paying attention, boom, you fly right off the road,” Eric Duran told WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs. “Something has to be done.”

Kervens Boutin, 30, of Hempstead, was operating a Nissan Maxima westbound on the Southern State Parkway with four passengers when he lost control and struck several trees.  

Pronounced dead at the scene were passengers Bryan Rivas, 20, and Blossom Castro, 22, both of Hempstead. The driver and two other passengers remain in critical condition.

Boutin was charged with Reckless Driving. Additional charges are pending the outcome of the accident investigation. According to Newsday, [paid site]  "The area is on a stretch of the parkway dubbed "Blood Alley" because of the many fatal crashes in between Exit 17 and Exit 30."

According to CBS, State police stats show 12 fatalities on that stretch of the Southern State in the last two years and 40 in the last five years.

Four of those fatatlities were in October 2012, when an unlicensed teen crashed into a tree along the Southern State Parkway in West Hempstead. Joseph Beer, 18, of Richmond Hill, walked away from the Oct. 8 crash that killed his four friends -- Darian Ramnarine, 18, Christopher Khan, 18, and Peter Kanhai, 18, and Neal Rajapa, 17.

Do you think changes need to be made to the Southern State Parkway? Tell us in the comments section below.