Residents in Farmingdale Village say they are begging for changes on their roadways due to safety concerns.
Neighbors on Bernard Street in Farmingdale say they deal with serious traffic issues.
“About 1:15 a.m., I was watching TV in my house and all of a sudden, we heard this big, screeching noise coming down the block and then a big slam right into this car behind us,” said resident Ryan Kunzmann.
What Kunzmann heard was an alleged drunk driver slamming into his neighbor's car. The driver then attempted to flee the scene. The police were called and the driver was arrested, but Kunzmann says one arrest won't solve anything.
Other neighbors in Farmingdale Village say it’s is not the first incident they have seen, and they constantly see problems. Even on Route 109, they say they've seen speeding drivers, drunk drivers and even some fatal accidents.
Scott Sila says the problems affect the residents on Bernard Street. He says many have reached out to the village asking for a change, and the village responded by doing a six-month trial of turning Bernard Street into a dead end. That trial period just ended, and the street's access to Route 109 was reopened.
Sila says that for those six months, it seemed that it stopped many accidents, even on Route 109. He says that in the five days that it’s been back, the area is back to having serious accidents.
News 12 reached out to the state Department of Transportation, which says access from local roads to 109 is the responsibility of local municipalities.
The Farmingdale mayor told News 12, "Our resident safety is always a No. 1 priority, and we will continue to look into this and make recommendations."