75-year-old bicyclist seriously injured in Greenlawn crash

A 75-year-old bicyclist was seriously injured Tuesday afternoon when a 2022 Subaru struck the rider at Butterfield Drive and Pulaski Road in Greenlawn, sending the victim by Suffolk County Police helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital.

Police said the crash happened around 1 p.m. on May 26, 2026. The bicyclist was reported in serious but non-life-threatening condition. Suffolk County Police Second Squad detectives were investigating.

The collision turned a routine Greenlawn intersection into a major emergency scene and put a spotlight on how quickly a crash involving an older cyclist can become life-threatening. Butterfield Drive and Pulaski Road sit in a part of Suffolk County used daily by school families, commuters, delivery drivers and recreational cyclists, making the impact of a single collision ripple well beyond the immediate scene.

The victim was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital, Suffolk County’s only Level 1 Adult and Pediatric Trauma Center. That matters in a county where severe crashes often require rapid transport to the highest level of emergency care.

Stony Brook Medicine staffs the Suffolk County Police Department’s medevac helicopters, and the county fleet has four aircraft. The EMS team completes about 300 medevac flights each year, a measure of how often serious injuries on Suffolk roads require airborne transport to reach definitive care.

The crash also fits into a broader public-safety question that extends beyond one intersection. New York State Department of Health county traffic injury reports include separate data for pedal cyclists, and the state Department of Transportation publishes bicycle crash data and crash-analysis tools as part of highway safety work aimed at reducing fatalities and serious injuries. Those resources are designed to show where bike crashes cluster, how often they happen and which roadway conditions put riders at risk.

For Greenlawn and surrounding Huntington roads, the case is a reminder that older cyclists remain vulnerable wherever traffic, speed and limited separation from vehicles meet. Even when a rider survives, the consequences can be severe, and the safety of neighborhood intersections can quickly become a countywide concern.