Potholes on Sunken Meadow Parkway and across Long Island are blowing tires and stranding drivers

A huge pothole on the Sunken Meadow Parkway damaged more than a dozen vehicles and took them off the road on Friday morning, a driver who caught the scene on video said.

The dangerous chasm was one of several reported throughout Long Island in what experts said has been an especially severe pothole season.

The video, originally shared on social media by East Northport resident Gerard McGorry, showed 15 cars pulled over on the southbound side of the parkway, between Jericho Turnpike and the Northern State Parkway, shortly before 8 a.m., McGorry said.

"All these people just lost tires from that massive pothole," McGorry said in the video, which was widely shared and viewed more than 370,000 times.

In an interview with Newsday, McGorry said a piece of rebar exposed because of the pothole appeared to have punctured the tires of several cars that drove over it.

"I would think the majority of these people got not one flat but two flats just going through that thing," said McGorry, who described the culprit crater as about 2-by-2 feet and 4 inches deep.

State Department of Transportation spokesman Stephen Canzoneri said the DOT was notified on Friday morning about "pavement issues" on the Sunken Meadow Parkway and immediately dispatched maintenance crews to make repairs. McGorry confirmed crews closed the affected lane for fixes.

"While potholes commonly form during the winter months, this year’s problem has been intensified by recent severe weather and repeated freeze-thaw cycles," Canzoneri said. "We appreciate the public’s patience as our crews continue this important work."

Canzoneri urged motorists to report potholes on state-owned highways by calling 800-POTHOLE (800-768-4653).

Newsday received reports from motorists Friday of other large potholes, including one on the eastbound Northern State Parkway near Exit 35, and another on the northbound Wantagh Parkway near the Southern State Parkway. Both resulted in disabled cars pulled over onto the shoulder. 

Robert Sinclair Jr., senior manager of public affairs at AAA Northeast, said the sudden deterioration in road conditions is evidence of "all the ingredients necessary" for one of Long Island’s worst pothole seasons in years.

"We had winter-like conditions in late October. Also, November was very, very cold. And then it would warm up, and then there would be rain, and then it would be cold again," Sinclair said, noting the cycle of water seeping into cracks in roads, freezing, and then thawing out, leads to potholes. Road conditions are made worse by heavy traffic, Sinclair said.

DOT and other public works crews are "doing the best they can" to keep up with the potholes, Sinclair said, but "it’s been a tough winter. ... Hopefully they’ll be able to keep up."

Seymour Spiegel, who has lived in Jericho for more than 50 years, said he regularly reports potholes to authorities but believes government should be more proactive in addressing the problem.

"I think none of them, on their own, go looking for potholes. If people don’t call in ... they don’t get fixed. It shouldn’t be that way," Spiegel, 79, said. "You can’t leave it like this. There’s a pothole on the street around the corner from me that, if I hit it, it would break a wheel."

Marc Herbst, executive director of the Long Island Contractors' Association, a trade organization, said regularly scheduled "pavement assessments" could help identify problematic conditions before they manifest into dangerous potholes.

"That’s something we’ve been encouraging the last few years — that all municipalities have a deliberate plan to assess their roadway system," Herbst said. "An analogy is a roof on your house. Nobody pays attention to it until you start getting leaks."