Nassau road deaths rose in 2025, Newsday database shows

Traffic fatalities in Nassau County rose from 67 in 2024 to at least 78 last year, according to data from Newsday’s fatality tracker, launched as part of its Dangerous Roads series.

In Suffolk County, it’s not yet clear from preliminary data whether traffic fatalities rose or fell. The database counted at least 163 deaths across Long Island from vehicle crashes last year.

Unlike official data, which is not yet available, Newsday’s online fatality tracker represents the minimum number of people who died, as tracked through police news releases and media reports.

Official countywide and statewide numbers are not typically published until about 10 months after the end of the year.

Last year’s victims ranged in age from 2 to 99, Newsday’s database shows.

Among them was Ostin Portillo Perdomo, a 16-year-old Riverhead High School student who helped take care of his two younger siblings and died in a single-car crash in September.

"He was the best big brother anyone could have," his mother told Newsday days after the crash.

Traffic fatalities spiked on Long Island and nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, then returned to pre-pandemic levels in Nassau in 2023 and in Suffolk in 2024.

But if Nassau’s fatality number holds steady at 78 for 2025, that would be the worst year for traffic deaths since 2022, when there were 81 fatalities, according to official data. 

The Nassau County Police Department, which shares patrolling responsibilities with state troopers and village police departments, saw an uptick in deaths on roads they patrol last year. They recorded 44 fatalities in 2025, 35 in 2024 and 46 in 2023.

"Recent tragedies on our roadways are a reminder of the importance of safety and the partnership between the police and the community we serve," Commissioner Patrick Ryder said in a statement. "It is imperative that traffic safety education starts at home — distracted driving remains a concern: put the phone down, the text can wait, slow down and never drive under the influence."

County traffic deaths can fluctuate from year to year for a variety of reasons, but Newsday has reported on some long-term factors that help explain why Long Island's traffic fatality rate has been higher than the state's.

These include a heavy reliance on cars, an alarming rise of aggressive driving, roadway designs that put pedestrians and cyclists at risk and relatively low ticketing rates, especially in Suffolk.

"You can drive the Long Island Expressway, no matter what hour, and there's somebody zooming in and out of lanes," said Robert Sinclair, spokesman for AAA Northeast. "It boggles the mind that as prevalent and bad as aggressive driving is on that road, you don't see people getting pulled over all the time."

In Suffolk, Newsday’s preliminary tally shows 85 deaths in 2025. That would be a substantial decline from 2024’s 118 deaths, but the number could rise significantly once the official tally is released.

Newsday’s database misses some cases because media and police reports do not always cover traffic deaths that occur after extended hospitalization. Similarly, if a driver dies after a crash caused by a heart attack or other medical episode, their death may not be noted in a news release, according to a Suffolk police spokesperson.

The preliminary data for Nassau show at least 28 pedestrian fatalities in 2025, up from 26 the prior year, and three cyclist fatalities, up from two. For Suffolk, the preliminary data show at least 34 pedestrian deaths and one cyclist death in 2025.

Newsday launched the database to provide a searchable resource that gives a sense of the scale of human loss on the Island. The data are updated daily, and include the time and location of the crash, ages and genders of people who died.

Sinclair said the real-time data is useful, given how delayed official statistics often are.

"Having it up to date is very good for letting residents, drivers, officials [and] police personnel know exactly what the problems are on a timely basis," he said, adding more needs to be done — both on Long Island and nationwide.

"Imagine 39,000 people were being killed every year in plane crashes," he said, citing the number of people killed on American roads in 2024. "That'd be like two 747s going down every week. ... That's totally unacceptable." 

In the first few days of 2026, Newsday has tracked five traffic-related deaths on Long Island — a 75-year-old pedestrian in Uniondale, a 22-year-old driver in East Islip, a driver in Coram, a 77-year-old pedestrian in Lindenhurst and a 21-year-old motorcyclist in Hicksville.

By Peter Gill

peter.gill@newsday.com