STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A crash Thursday on Staten Island’s South Shore , which sent two people to the hospital and left one in critical condition with head trauma, is not the first road incident to cause serious injury at the site.

In fact, the location at the intersection of Wainwright Avenue and Drumgoole Road East in Eltingville was identified by the city for installation of new traffic lights , which were installed months ago, but have not yet been turned on.

The Department of Transportation said they’d installed “these signals following several crashes at this location and several community requests for the treatment.”

Shortly after 4 p.m. on Thursday, a 57-year-old man driving a 2007 Cadillac DTS was critically injured in the latest crash at the site. He and a 25-year-old woman driving a 2024 Audi Q3 were rushed to Northwell Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze. She was listed in stable condition.

The 57-year-old driver remains in critical condition with trauma in his head and body on Friday, according to a spokesman for the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

Police are investigating whether one of the cars in that crash blasted through a stop sign at the busy intersection, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

Stop signs are posted in all directions at the intersection, including for drivers exiting from Korean War Veterans Memorial Parkway and the park-and-ride lot for the Eltingville Transit Center.

Police’s initial account was that the Cadillac was heading eastbound on Drumgoole Road East when it struck the Audi that was going southbound on Wainwright Avenue. The Cadillac then hit a 2021 Jeep Cherokee parked and unoccupied on Drumgoole Road East.

The investigation into Thursday’s crash continues with no arrests as of Friday, according to the police spokesman.

Permanent injuries, trauma

The site of Thursday’s crash is the same location that left a nearby resident with permanent injuries, his wife says.

Michael Rogozin continues to suffer from injuries, and his wife Pamela remains traumatized, after she saw her husband fly into the air when he was struck by a car while the couple was walking with their young grandchildren near the Eltingville Transit Center.

“As he lay on the ground, the first thing he said to me was, ‘Sorry I can’t take you out to dinner,’” Pamela Rogozin recalled her husband saying after the pedestrian crash that happened in the morning on Valentine’s Day.

Pamela Rogozin believes her husband’s life-altering accident could have been prevented if the traffic light had been turned on at Drumgoole Road East and Wainwright Avenue near an exit for the parking lot at the Eltingville Transit Center.

The traffic signal was covered in burlap on Friday. A spokesman for the city Department of Transportation told the Advance/SILive.com that he is looking into the issue.

“I’d hate for anybody else to get hit like my husband did,” she said, adding that crash occurred a couple of blocks from their home.

“We’ve lived here now for almost 40 years and there’s been a lot of accidents there over the years,” she said of the intersection.

Pamela Rogozin added, “I’m hoping that maybe between the accident that happened yesterday and my husband getting hit, they’ll finally do something about that traffic light not being on.”

Drivers exiting from the Korean War Memorial Parkway on Drumgoole Road East often turn right at the stop sign onto Wainwright before making a quick left onto the continuation of Drumgoole Road East heading toward Richmond Avenue. Michael Rogozin was struck in the part of the intersection where drivers typically make that left turn, she said.

The police report indicates that Rogozin was struck by a 2025 Hyundai sedan driven by a 70-year-old man.

The police report alleges that the driver of the Hyundai was making a left turn from Wainwright Avenue onto Drumgoole Road East when the crash occurred.

The police report cites injuries to Rogozin’s head, left shoulder and right hip and indicates that the victim was transported by EMS to Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze.

Wife details tragic crash

The pedestrian crash occurred when Pamela Rogozin said she was pushing a stroller with her two grandchildren, a baby and a toddler, inside as they were heading from their home to Greenridge Plaza shopping center.

Her husband was walking behind because he had gone back home to retrieve a forgotten item. She crossed the street and looked back to see where he was.

“As I turned, he got hit by the car, so I actually saw him fly up onto the roof of the car and over the side of the car,” Pamela Rogozin said.

She claims that no one answered when she repeatedly called 911. She then reached out to a first responder she knew who contacted a supervisor and help finally arrived.

“I couldn’t even get through to 911,” Pamela Rogozin said. “That was crazy.”

Michael Rogozin went to the hospital with a minor cut on his head, and a serious fracture in his left arm near his elbow.

“He actually will never be able to straighten his arm out completely,” Pamela said, adding that her husband continues to endure severe hip-and-knee pain as a result of the crash.

Fortunately, he is able to hold his grandchildren in his dominant right arm.

“I have more PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) than he does because I saw him fly in the air,“ she said.

Pamela Rogozin said she called 311 to complain about dangerous conditions at the intersection, but nothing has changed.

She said that numerous accidents occurred at the intersection before the stop sign for the right turn was installed. She hopes that when the traffic signals finally operate that no right-turn-on-red is offered as an option.

Traffic lights touted in April

In April, the Advance/SILive.com reported that the new signals had been installed at the intersection in which Wainwright Avenue meets Drumgoole Road East in Eltingville — right outside the parking lot entrance for the Eltingville Transit Center.

As currently laid out, seven lanes criss-cross at the service road intersection, with all-way stop signs in place to keep traffic organized. The four new traffic signals will replace the existing all-way stop setup, which the Department of Transportation said in April will make things safer and smoother.

“These new signals will better control traffic and enhance safety at this intersection,” said a spokesperson for the city Department of Transportation in April. “NYC DOT is in the process of installing these signals following several crashes at this location and several community requests for the treatment.”

The spokesperson said that the installation of the traffic lights came from several community requests to address the intersection, and that 19 crashes were reported at the location over the three-year period between February 2018 and February 2021.

And while the Department of Transportation did not provide an exact date for when the signals will be operational, a reader had reached out to the Advance/SILive.com in April to say that they had been installed, covered and dormant for “at least a month or two,” with little indication for when they might turn on.