Silver State Times

The year 2021 was particularly dangerous on Nevada's roads and highways.

“Preliminary data shows that 382 traffic fatalities occurred on Nevada roads in 2021, up from 324 deaths in 2020,” said Meg Ragonese, public information officer for the Nevada Department of Transportation. “This makes 2021 the deadliest year on Nevada roads in a decade.”

Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Nevada State Police Office of Traffic Safety reinforce a report issued in January by the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (AHAS). Its 19th annual Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws urges changes in state laws to make roads safer and reduce the high death toll.

Nevada, with 3.1 million people, is a fast-growing state, ranking fifth in the nation between 2011-2020, and its busy highways reflect that. | Photo courtesy Nevada Department of Transportation

On average, 100 people die every day on U.S. roads. The AHAS recommends 16 optimal laws for states to adopt to make roads safer. The report details ways to increase occupant protection, child passenger safety, assist novice teen and young adult drivers, and reduce impaired driving and distracted driving.

“During the first six months of 2021, more than 20,000 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes, the most during this time period since 2006,” the report states. “This represents a nearly 20% increase in deaths over the same period in 2020 and is the largest such spike ever recorded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System.”

Ragonese said the AHAS report points to the critical role that traffic safety laws play in roadway safety. In January, she noted, a new state law enhanced child-restraint rules to provide better protection for our youngest passengers.

“NDOT and the Nevada State Police Office of Traffic Safety, along with other traffic-safety advocates, thoughtfully consider the recommendations in this report and use the information to inform legislators and policymakers,” Ragonese said. “The laws recommended in the report are based on established safety best practices and countermeasures recommended by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

"Nevada was rated in the 2021 report as 'red'," she added. "One simple change to improve our child seat law made the difference in moving us to 'yello'” status, not to mention improved safety for children traveling in vehicles.”

Ragonese noted that public safety officials are aware of the need to do more, and drivers also must follow the recommended changes.

“Nevada’s roadways just experienced the deadliest year in a decade and our safety partners are doubling down efforts to save lives," Ragonese said. "Transportation, law enforcement, medical response and safety partners across Nevada will continue our work to save lives and reduce serious injuries on Nevada roads. But traffic safety is the responsibility of everyone on the road and we will need everyone to help achieve the goal of zero fatalities. 

"We hope that this report will remind every driver, every pedestrian, every bicyclist and motorcyclist that we all must safely share the road," she added. "Put the distractions and poor road behaviors aside and focus on being traffic safe."

She said Nevada’s goal is to cut the yearly traffic fatality average in half by 2030, with the ultimate goal of zero fatalities on Nevada roads by 2050.

The state’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan establishes goals and strategies focusing on the six “E's” of traffic safety: equity, engineering, education, enforcement, emergency response and everyone.

To save lives, traffic safety partners across the state focus strategies in eight areas that involve the most deaths and injuries on Nevada roads, including safe speed, lane departures, intersections, pedestrians, motorcyclists, occupant protection, older drivers, young drivers and impaired driving.

The Strategic Highway Safety Plan outlines actions Nevada is enacting in an effort to save lives and reduce serious injuries on roadways. Some of the initiatives include engineering speed management, since speed influences the risk and severity of a crash.

In spring of 2021, NDOT launched the Speed Management Action Plan to develop more strategies to manage speed on all roadways in the state. In collaboration with partner agencies, the plan will identify the most targeted engineering, enforcement, emergency medical and educational countermeasures and strategies to reduce speed-related crashes in a consistent and equitable manner. The plan will offer statewide safety strategies that can be used on both state and local roads.

NDOT’s safety management plans evaluate current and future use of specific corridors to improve traffic safety, mobility and connectivity.

Safety management plans gather stakeholder and public input and analyze crash data, roadway safety, accessibility, lighting, sight distance, lane configuration and traffic patterns for specific roadway corridors. The data and public feedback are then used to develop targeted corridor-specific improvements, such as reconfiguring roadway lanes and making spot improvements. The short-term and long-term safety improvements help pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicle drivers and occupants all more safely share the road.

Nevada also is adopting the Safe Systems approach and aligning with the USDOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy announced Jan. 27 to try to eliminate fatal and serious injuries for all roadway users.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Safety states that “implementing the Safe System approach requires evaluating the current state of practice, evolving the approach for consistency, and institutionalizing the paradigm shift.” The Safe Systems approach aligns with Nevada’s current Strategic Highway Safety Plan.

NDOT encourages all local entities to develop road safety plans, an FHW- proven safety countermeasure that provides a framework for identifying, analyzing and prioritizing roadway safety improvements. The Safe Systems approach reinforces that redundancy is crucial in traffic safety.

Through the Nevada Department of Public Safety, the Joining Forces campaign calls on law enforcement officers to help reduce impaired, unbuckled, distracted or otherwise unsafe driving.

National statistics show that for every minute a freeway lane is blocked, the resulting traffic congestion takes four minutes to clear, and the chance of more severe secondary crashes increases. The Nevada Departments of Transportation and Public Safety bring local law enforcement, fire departments, public works, emergency medical responders, federal highway, homeland security and transit administrations, as well as private towing and hazardous materials responders, together in regional traffic incident management (TIM) coalitions.

The coalitions train Nevada first responders to quickly and safely respond to and clear roadway incidents to improve roadway safety while also reducing travel delays. Since Nevada’s first TIM coalition was founded in southern Nevada in 2008, coalitions statewide have trained 65% of all incident responders to implement consistent, safe and quick clearance of traffic incidents.

Established more than 10 years ago, the state’s zero fatalities traffic safety campaign educates and reminds all road users to be safe.

The AHAS calls on Nevada to make the following improvements to increase safety and reduce fatalities:

• Primary enforcement seat belt law, front and rear.
• Booster seat law.
• Minimum age 16 for a learner’s permit.
• Fifty hours of supervised driving provision for young drivers.
• Nighttime restriction for young drivers.
• Stronger passenger restriction for young drivers.
• Minimum age 18 for an unrestricted license.
• Cellphone restriction for young drivers.

Young passengers must be protected, Nevada State Rep. Shannon Bilbray-Axelrod (D-Las Vegas) said in a release announcing the findings of the report.

“Improperly restrained child passengers are a serious public health problem, yet it can be addressed with a proven solution,” said Bilbray-Axelrod, who represents the 34th District. “Ensuring children are in the appropriate restraint for their age and size greatly improves their chance of surviving a crash and avoiding serious injury. I am very glad to report Nevada upgraded its child passenger safety law last year upon enacting a bill that I sponsored, Assembly Bill (AB) 118, and which was co-sponsored by 11 colleagues.”

The AHAS reports that although no state has enacted all 16 of its recommended laws, they can make progress. It said a total of 390 laws need to be passed by state governments to reduce the number of deaths and serious crashes, including:

• Sixteen states need an optimal primary enforcement seat belt law for front seat passengers.
• Thirty states need an optimal primary enforcement seat belt law for rear seat passengers.
• Thirty-two states need an optimal all-rider motorcycle helmet law.
• Thirty-four states need a rear facing through age 2 law.
• Thirty-six states and D.C. need an optimal booster seat law.
• 189 GDL laws need to be adopted to ensure the safety of novice drivers, no state meets all the criteria recommended in this report.
• Twenty-nine critical impaired driving laws are needed in 27 states.
• Four states need an optimal all-driver text messaging restriction.
• Nineteen states need a GDL cellphone restriction.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, founded in 1989, is an alliance of public health, safety, consumer and law enforcement organizations, insurers and insurance agents that promotes highway and auto safety through the adoption of safety laws, policies and regulations.