A pedestrian was killed late Thursday night in a crash on Route 59 beneath the Route 304 overpass in Nanuet, and the road was shut down overnight as investigators worked the scene. The vehicle involved stopped after the crash. By Friday morning, the roadway had reopened to traffic.
According to News 12 Hudson Valley, police say the crash happened under the Route 304 overpass, and the road was closed for the investigation before reopening the next morning. Authorities had not released other details, including the identity of the victim or what led up to the crash, as of Friday.
A Stretch of Road With a Troubled History
This isn't the first time that exact overpass has been the scene of tragedy. On June 13, 2021, 25-year-old Rockland County resident Michael Magee was killed after the Ford Mustang he was driving went over the Route 304 overpass and landed on the eastbound lanes of Route 59 below, according to Patch. The vehicle reportedly went over a guardrail and fell onto the roadway, overturning on impact, per reporting from the Rockland County Times.
Clarkstown police said at the time that no contributing factors had been definitively determined in that 2021 crash, per Patch. It's unclear whether the location itself, rather than coincidence, played any role in either incident, and nothing in the current reporting connects Thursday's crash to the circumstances of the 2021 one.
Route 59's Reputation as a Danger Zone
Beyond this single overpass, Route 59 has developed a documented reputation as one of Rockland County's most hazardous roads. The corridor is a heavily trafficked east-west route that crosses four municipalities and racks up high crash rates at multiple intersections along the way, the Rockland County Times reports. The Route 59/Airmont Road intersection in particular generates frequent collision reports involving both vehicles and pedestrians, and the road consistently appears in New York State DOT Five Percent Reports, which flag the top 5% of road segments statewide by crash rate.
The danger isn't limited to drivers. In Rockland County alone, 208 pedestrians were killed or injured in crashes in 2024, according to the Rockland County Times, and pedestrians account for nearly one-quarter of all traffic fatalities statewide. Many of those crashes happen at intersections or while people are crossing roadways, often involving speeding, distracted driving, or drivers failing to yield the right of way, per the same outlet's reporting.
The Chestnut Ridge junction where Route 45 meets Route 59 has separately been singled out as one of the county's worst intersections. The New York State Department of Transportation has been examining pedestrian safety along the Routes 59 and 45 corridor as part of its broader responsibility for coordinating the state's highways and bridges.
For now, the latest crash remains under investigation, with police yet to release the victim's identity or any details about what led to the fatal collision beneath the overpass.
