How many more lives must this road claim before the Nassau County officials agree to fix its many problems? I awoke Monday morning to discover that three more people had lost their lives on my street over the weekend. While a fatal traffic accident is always a tragedy, this event is particularly horrific because my repeated warnings to County Executive Suozzi and the commissioner of the Department of Public Works about the road's dangers and its well-documented history of major accidents went unheeded. This is so even though I had provided copies of police reports, newspaper articles and my earlier correspondence, and in spite of the fact that I suggested simple measures to help to make this a safer road for all that use it.

The first of my most recent series of letters (dated June 5) opened by asking Mr. Suozzi to demonstrate that he cares "about the people who live on and use this road" and concluded by imploring him to see that "a traffic study be employed for that purpose and that the resulting recommendations be implemented . . . before a tragedy occurs." Neither occurred. Two months later, a motorcyclist died right in front of my neighbor's driveway. Although my follow-up letter to Mr. Suozzi advised him of the tragedy, reiterated the specific dangers posed by this road, and provided specific examples of the problems and offered specific solutions, he did just as his predecessor had done; he sent me a form letter expressing his concern and stating that he had passed the information on to the County Department of Public Works.

Months of complete lack of response from the Department of Public Works prompted me to write my Feb. 6 letter to Commissioner Davenport, in which I again explained the problem and solutions in great detail. This time, four months later, I did receive a response: It was dated June 8, and it reported the county's conclusion that the present traffic control devices and signage are adequate. Less than 48 hours later, three young men lost their lives in a head-on collision, which may have been prevented. Their accident occurred just 50 feet west of the intersection for which I had requested the installation of two stop signs, starting more than one year earlier. Had they been in place, the drivers would have been preparing to stop or getting under way after having just stopped, thereby greatly decreasing the likelihood that three men would have died.

Why did county officials ignore my previous pleas? Was it cost-driven? Did they believe that it would be too expensive to take measures to make this a safer road? If money was the motivator, they were mistaken. None of the road's problems have gone away, and now the county faces the specter of litigation, the likely costs of which will be many times the cost of taking the measures that I requested so long ago.

In the meantime, three family groups are left to mourn the losses of their sons, brothers, husbands or fathers. I am so very sorry that no one listened to me.

Stacey Tranchina