As part of enforcement of the 2022 Traffic Safety Act, MassDOT is providing 3,458 safe passing distance signs to 136 Massachusetts municipalities through February 2024, including the sign on North Avenue in Attleboro. is also included. (Colin A. Young/SHNS)
DAIGHTON — Safety on Massachusetts roads is “at critical levels,” state highway officials said last week as the Department of Transportation works to prevent some of the most dangerous and deadly conditions and make overall improvements. He spoke to lawmakers, explaining in detail the measures he had taken. Local road safety.
According to MassDOT's accident data portal, there were 134,233 motor vehicle accidents in Massachusetts last year.
That's up from 132,659 accidents in 2022 and 124,734 in 2021, but below levels recorded in the years just before the pandemic. The portal is based on reports entered into the Registry's Crash Data System, which displays 140,939 crash reports in 2019, 142,272 in 2018, and 145,068 in 2017.
The number of fatal crashes was on the rise even before the pandemic, with 409 fatal crashes reported in 2022, the highest number since 2005, when 417 fatal crashes were reported. In 2023, fatal accidents decreased again with 325 cases reported.
According to the MassDOT portal, 15,948 crashes have been reported so far in 2024, including 40 fatalities, 234 crashes involving pedestrians, and 58 crashes involving bicyclists.
“Road safety, particularly fatalities, continues to be at crisis levels, not only in Massachusetts but across the nation,” Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver said Tuesday in presenting the budget to the Joint Committee on Revenue.
He said MassDOT has completed a pilot of wrong-way driver deterrence, which has been “very successful,” and now has 16 freeway entrance and exit ramps that detect when a driver is on a ramp headed in the wrong direction. , explained that it was equipped to issue an alarm. It tells drivers they are going in the wrong direction, notifies the state command center of a potentially dangerous situation, and alerts drivers heading in the right direction on highways.
Gulliver said MassDOT looks forward to expanding the pilot.
“A lot of signs are lit, there are bright lights that hit drivers at night, there are flashing signs. There are a lot of elements to help drivers know when they're going in the wrong direction. And “Again, it's a sign for people who are on the right path that they really, really need to be careful,” he said.
Gulliver said the system was installed in a location that MassDOT had “identified as having an existing problem” where drivers could be confused about where to enter the highway. Many of the sites have entrance and exit ramps adjacent to each other, and many wrong-way driving accidents occur, especially at night, which can cause confusion.
Congressman Joseph McKenna of Webster expressed particular interest in the pilot program. There was a double-fatal wrong-way driver crash on Interstate 395 in Webster in early December. “I know there is a wrong-way road sign right near where the accident happened,” he said, but he doesn't know if the wrong-way driver entered the highway there or from another point. said. Gulliver said he would investigate the crash and offered to arrange a demonstration of the system for lawmakers.
“Success for us is when they turn around and self-correct, which is happening a lot with some of these ramps, but once they self-correct and turn around, they're fast Get off the road and get back on the right path.’ That’s our ultimate goal,” the highway administrator said in response to questions from McKenna. “We want to be able to stop every single wrong-way driver driving the wrong way on the highway… Those are some of the most difficult accidents for us. If that happens, obviously Very deadly.”
Gulliver also briefed lawmakers Tuesday on MassDOT's efforts to implement the Highway Safety Act that Congress passed in late 2022. It includes a series of new requirements aimed at protecting pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users from threats from motor vehicles. That included standard requirements for drivers to maintain at least 4 feet of distance when passing such people, and to close what he called loopholes around school zones.
To communicate these new traffic rules, MassDOT has distributed 3,739 free signs across the state and provided 136 municipalities with a total of 3,458 signs reminding drivers about the new 4-foot passing distance. and distributed 281 school zone speed limit signs in 130 municipalities. It also shows the driver's current speed. Highway officials also said there have been changes to the rules for when communities can designate school zones to reduce traffic speeds.
“This was a significant change in the last year. As those in Congress know, there has always been a blind spot in the rules about where school districts can be designated. For years, 8 There was a condition that children could only go on to the first grade, and high school was exempt.The theory is that high school students are more responsible and know the traffic rules,'' Gulliver said, adding that parents of high school students would definitely agree. joked that he knew it wasn't true. “So that loophole has already been closed.”