The state Department of Transportation has determined that signs erected on Flanders Road by the sister of the Hampton Bays woman killed in a Jan. 16 crash on that highway are indeed on private property — not in the state right of way.
A DOT survey crew made the determination after taking measurements over the past week, a spokesperson for the state agency said this afternoon.
“The signs are about four feet off the state right of way,” DOT spokesperson Eileen Peters said. “The decision has just been made.”
Tocci said she knew that was the case, based on a survey she and her husband Michael Dispenziere had prepared when they bought the parcel, which stretches to the state highway from Goldenleaf Trail in Flanders.
Tocci said this afternoon she has not yet gotten word of the decision from the DOT. Tocci and her family were incensed that the state seemed to be looking to take the signs down. The two billboard-sized signs warn drivers against texting while driving and driving under the influence of drugs.
Southampton Town police accident report on the fatal accident that claimed the life of Tocci’s sister, Barbara Tocci, cited the use of a handheld device by the driver of a PSEG utility truck that crossed into the oncoming lane and hit Tocci’s SUV head-on. The report did not say whether the driver was texting, but Tocci says an investigator with the Suffolk County district attorney’s office told the victim’s family they found evidence that the utility company worker was texting on his personal cell phone prior to the accident. That’s what inspired the billboard, she said.
The second sign warning against drugged driving was inspired the death of the fiancee of Barbara Tocci’s son, who was killed in an April crash with the driver of a vehicle police say was under the influence of drugs. That accident took place in California. Haley Riggins and Thomas Podlas had an infant daughter, Kadence. Susan Tocci’s sign has a picture of Riggens and the baby and bears the message: “Kadence will grow up WITHOUT HER MOM. DO NOT DRIVE UNDER THE INFLUENCE. Hayley Riggins 1987-2014.”
Tocci and Dispenziere had the sign installed at about 5:30 p.m. on July 3. The following Monday, a state DOT inspector was already there investigating the legality of its placement. Last week, survey crews showed up. Among other things, they dug several holes on and around Tocci’s property, apparently searching for concrete monuments marking the private property’s boundaries.
The state DOT acknowledged they were acting on a complaint about the sign. Tocci said the agency seemed to be going out of its way to get the signs taken down and she wanted to know why.
“Is warning people about the dangers of texting or drinking and driving a bad thing?” she asked. “The state should be more concerned about fixing the condition of this road, which was another factor in the crash that killed my sister,” Tocci said.
The accident report listed “defective pavement” as a contributing factor in the crash.
On the day of the accident, the driver of the utility truck, Michael Pepe Jr., 53, of Bayport, told police he struck a pothole in the southbound lane that caused him to lose control of the truck and sent him into the northbound lane, where he collided head-on with Tocci’s SUV.
The condition of Flanders Road was the subject of numerous complaints to the state by residents. After the crash, the state immediately began patching potholes. Responding to the community outcry in the wake of the crash, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the resurfacing of Flanders Road had been “accelerated” on the state’s schedule to this year.
The $6 million project is scheduled to begin this fall, right after Labor Day, Assemblyman Fred Thiele said on Monday.
“It seems like a terrible waste of taxpayer dollars to be worrying about whether our sign posts encroach on the state right-of-way. Three trucks and three crews? Seriously?” Susan Tocci asked Monday. “They should be putting those resources into fixing the road.”
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