Southold Police teamed up with the Suffolk County Police motor carrier safety unit to conduct a bus and limousine checkpoint in Cutchogue on Saturday.
Between 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., police conducted 15 traffic stops at the Depot Lane checkpoint. Six violations were found, police said.
Seven vehicles were given “level one” inspections, where vehicles are brought into the checkpoint for a complete inspection. Police gave out five Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance decals, which are awarded to commercial vehicles that pass level-1 inspection.
“This enforcement is part of an ongoing combined effort to ensure the safe transport of passengers to local attractions on the North Fork,” police said in a press release.
The intersection of Depot Lane and Route 48 was the site of a deadly limousine crash that claimed the lives of four young women in July 2015. The victims were on a wine-tasting tour of the North Fork, with their last stop at Vineyard 48.
Bill Shipman, who lives nearby, has repeatedly complained to the town board about crowds, parking and limo traffic on his road generated by the vineyard. He says he’s been complaining since 2012, and has told the town board that he believes the town’s failure to enforce its own codes contributed to the crash.
The limo was broadsided when it attempted to make a legal U-turn into the westbound lanes of the four-lane divided highway.
Stretch limos and party buses often cannot negotiate the U-turn without making a three-point turn — stopping to back up before proceeding westbound, blocking the westbound lanes. The limousine driver in last summer’s crash made such a maneuver and is facing criminally negligent homicide and assault charges in Suffolk County Criminal Court, following his indictment by a grand jury in March.
Shipman recently went before the town board to renew his plea for stepped-up enforcement at the intersection of County Road 48 and Depot Lane. The supervisor responded that town police do patrol the intersection and do enforce the law. He said they can’t be there all the time because Southold is a large town with many intersections that demand attention.
