About Jericho Turnpike
Jericho Turnpike — signed as New York State Route 25 — is one of Long Island’s oldest and most heavily used surface roads, a commercial spine that has functioned as the island’s east–west “Main Street” since the colonial era. Where the Long Island Expressway moves traffic over Long Island at highway speed, Jericho Turnpike moves it through the heart of every community it touches: an at-grade arterial lined with retail plazas, car dealerships, diners, and downtowns, punctuated by hundreds of traffic signals and driveway cuts. That character makes it indispensable to local life and, simultaneously, one of the highest crash-per-mile non-highway roads in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
History
The corridor follows one of Long Island’s original colonial-era post routes. In the early 19th century it was formalized as a privately operated toll turnpike, taking its name from Jericho, the historic Quaker hamlet in central Nassau County that anchored the route. After the turnpike era ended and the road passed into public ownership, it was folded into the state highway system and designated NY 25. The “Jericho Turnpike” name survives on the western portion of that designation, from the Queens border east to roughly Smithtown.
Route geometry (west to east)
The Jericho Turnpike name begins at the Queens–Nassau border in Floral Park, where Queens’ Hillside Avenue becomes NY 25. From there the road runs roughly west-to-east through the dense inner-Nassau suburbs: New Hyde Park, Garden City Park (junction with Nassau Boulevard), and Mineola, where NY 25A splits off to follow the North Shore. Continuing east, it passes through the Williston Park / Albertson area, Roslyn Heights, and into Jericho itself near the Route 106/107 junction and the Route 135 (Seaford–Oyster Bay Expressway) corridor. It then runs through Syosset and Woodbury before crossing into Suffolk County.
In Suffolk, the road threads through Cold Spring Harbor and into the Huntington area, where it crosses NY 110 — one of the busiest signalized junctions on the entire corridor. It continues east through Elwood (along the Dix Hills border), Commack, and into Smithtown, where the Jericho Turnpike name gives way to Middle Country Road. The NY 25 designation itself does not stop there: it carries on east through central Suffolk and out along the North Fork as Main Road, ultimately terminating at Orient Point more than 100 miles from where it started — but only the western ~30-mile segment is what Long Islanders mean when they say “Jericho Turnpike.”
Jurisdiction and patrol
Jericho Turnpike is a state highway maintained by NYSDOT Region 10, but because it is a surface arterial rather than a limited-access highway, day-to-day enforcement falls to local police rather than New York State Police. The Nassau County Police Department (NCPD) patrols the Nassau sections and the Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) patrols the Suffolk sections, while incorporated-village police departments — including Floral Park and Mineola — enforce traffic within their own boundaries. This patchwork of jurisdictions is one reason crash reporting on the corridor is spread across multiple agencies.
Speed limits and commercial character
Posted speed limits range from 30 mph through village business districts (Floral Park, Mineola, downtown Huntington) to 40–45 mph in less developed stretches. Because the road is an at-grade arterial with frequent signals, crosswalks, and commercial entrances, the posted limit changes repeatedly along the route, and real-world travel speeds during peak periods are far lower. The intense commercial development — strip retail, big-box plazas, auto dealerships, and restaurants — generates a steady stream of turning movements and pedestrian activity that defines both the road’s economic importance and its crash profile.
Dangerous Sections
The following segments are documented hot spots based on NYSDOT crash data and Long Island Traffic’s running corpus of accident reports for NY 25.
Garden City Park — Jericho Turnpike & Nassau Boulevard (Nassau County): This signalized intersection in the dense western Nassau corridor is a recurring pedestrian-crash location. In February 2026, a 56-year-old man was struck and killed by an SUV while crossing here — see Man, 56, Fatally Struck by SUV on Jericho Turnpike in Garden City Park. Wide crossing distances, heavy turning volumes, and limited pedestrian refuge make crossings on foot especially risky throughout this stretch.
Floral Park & New Hyde Park western corridor (Nassau County): The first few miles east of the Queens border are among the densest on the route, with traffic signals spaced only a few hundred feet apart and continuous commercial frontage. Aging utilities under the roadbed add a secondary hazard: in May 2026, a water main break closed the right westbound lane of NY-25 in this corridor, the kind of sudden lane reduction that triggers rear-end crashes in stop-and-go arterial traffic.
Huntington — Jericho Turnpike & Route 110 (Suffolk County): The crossing of NY 25 and NY 110 in the Huntington/Melville area is one of the highest-volume signalized junctions on Long Island, funneling commercial and commuter traffic between the Route 110 office corridor and the Hauppauge Industrial Park region. Heavy volumes and frequent lane changes produce recurring rear-end and left-turn crashes during peak hours.
Commack — Jericho Turnpike & East Deer Park Road (Suffolk County): This busy Commack junction has produced serious collisions requiring full closures. In April 2026, a two-vehicle crash here forced emergency crews to perform a roof-and-door extrication and shut Jericho Turnpike in both directions — see Jericho Turnpike in Commack closed as police investigate serious crash.
Elwood / Dix Hills corridor (Suffolk County): The stretch along the Elwood–Dix Hills border sees recurring nighttime impaired-driving crashes. In one April 2026 incident, a Nesconset man was charged with DWI after a crash that shut down Jericho Turnpike in Elwood, reflecting a pattern of late-night, high-speed collisions on the more open eastern segments.
Towns and Communities Along the Route
NY 25 / Jericho Turnpike passes through (or borders) the following Long Island municipalities, listed roughly west-to-east:
- Floral Park (Nassau)
- Mineola (Nassau)
- Syosset (Nassau)
- Huntington (Suffolk)
- Commack (Suffolk)
- Smithtown (Suffolk)
- Riverhead (Suffolk)
Each town profile carries its own crash-frequency data, hospital and emergency-services list, and the recent accident archive filtered to that municipality.
Recent Editorial Coverage
Recent Jericho Turnpike (NY-25) incidents documented by the Long Island Traffic data desk:
- Man, 56, Fatally Struck by SUV on Jericho Turnpike in Garden City Park — a fatal pedestrian crash at the Nassau Boulevard crossing
- Jericho Turnpike in Commack closed as police investigate serious crash — a two-vehicle collision at East Deer Park Road requiring extrication
- Nesconset man charged with DWI in crash that shut down Jericho Turnpike in Elwood — an impaired-driving crash on the eastern Suffolk corridor
- Water Main Break Closes Right Lane on NY-25 Westbound in Nassau County — an infrastructure-driven lane closure in the western corridor
For the complete NY 25 accident archive, see /accidents/ and filter by road.
Accident Statistics
Jericho Turnpike’s crash data reflect its character as a high-volume, at-grade arterial with hundreds of conflict points per mile. According to NYSDOT Motor Vehicle Crash data and New York Open Data records, NY 25 ranks among the highest-crash surface roads on Long Island by total volume, with the densely developed Nassau County sections (Floral Park through Jericho) generally showing the highest crash frequency and the more open Suffolk County sections showing higher crash severity tied to higher operating speeds.
Rear-end crashes at traffic signals and left-turn crashes at driveways and unsignalized intersections are the dominant crash types corridor-wide, while pedestrian crashes are over-represented in the dense commercial stretches through Garden City Park, Mineola, and downtown Huntington. Exact annual counts vary year to year and by reporting agency; readers seeking precise figures should consult NYSDOT’s published crash datasets and the NY Open Data motor-vehicle-collision tables rather than relying on a single headline number.
For the most current picture of conditions on the road right now, the Live Accident & Traffic Reports section above pulls directly from 511NY and our own ingestion pipeline.
If a crash on Jericho Turnpike injured you, New York’s filing deadlines are shorter than most expect — it is worth a quick call to a Long Island crash-injury lawyer.
