The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) is launching a campaign to help with its mortality rate that has ranked above the national average over the last few years.
Target Zero New Mexico seeks to coordinate all the department's transportation safety work and sharpen its focus on safety in everything it does in an effort to protect lives.
In 2021, 481 people died in New Mexico in motor vehicle crashes, higher than the national average.
If the state mirrored the national average of 1.37 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, there would be 114 fewer fatalities on New Mexico's roads every year.
While the state ranks fourth in motor vehicle fatalities in relation to miles traveled had more pedestrian deaths stemming from motor vehicle crashes than any other state in the nation.
On state roads, Santa Fe shows up in four of the top 10 "high incident intersections" for pedestrian crashes and in two for fatal crashes, according to 2018-22 data compiled by the department.
The launch of the initiative comes weeks before a session focused on public safety, including what lawmakers are calling a panhandling bill that would make it a crime for pedestrians to stand in medians less than three-feet wide on roadways where the speed limit is 30 mph or more.
Other proposed ideas center around overhauling laws around "assisted outpatient treatment," or court-ordered treatment for mental illness or addiction.
Providing safe roads for the traveling public is among the performance challenges identified in a report delivered Wednesday to Nevada lawmakers.
"We're coordinating efforts across the department ... to connect our safety planning into our maintenance and also into our projects," said Amy Whitfield, a member of the committee for the initiative. "We're going to [conduct more] road safety audits so that we can make sure that we're identifying root issues, not just building safety for the road, but how do we also engage in behavior change that happens for pedestrians and bikers."
Source: Yahoo News, Santafenewmexican.com
