(Camden, NJ) – On Monday, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and the Division of Highway Traffic Safety stood at the intersection of Pinehurst and the White Horse Pike in Waterford Township to announce a new traffic safety initiative aimed at cutting down on motor vehicle accidents and enhancing pedestrian safety along the state highway. The project is price tagged at $400,000 and is being funded by the Division of Highway Traffic Safety. Over the last four years, the White Horse Pike has had an increase in car accidents and pedestrian fatalities.
In 2023 alone, there were seven fatal crashes on this state highway. These crashes resulted in eight deaths with five being pedestrians and one being a bicyclist.
“We have repeatedly seen deadly car crashes on the White Horse Pike and we are determined to reduce the number of lives lost because so many of these incidents can be prevented,” said Camden County Prosecutor Grace MacAulay. “And we have noticed a common theme in these crashes: distracted driving and disregarding the speed limit. Too often drivers are looking at their cellphones and ignoring the speed limit, resulting in catastrophe.”
The overall scope of the plan will be to work alongside the 14 local police agencies throughout the White Horse Pike corridor in Camden County. These initiatives include addressing aggressive and distracted driving while also focusing on seat belt safety and most importantly pedestrian safety.
“This collaboration between municipalities along the White Horse Pike is a testament to our ongoing efforts to combat dangerous driving behaviors and improve pedestrian safety,” said Michael J. Rizol Jr., Director of the Division of Highway Traffic Safety. “Thanks to the consistent support of Attorney General Platkin and approximately $400,000 in federal funding for this initiative, we are paving the way towards safer communities, saving lives in Camden County, and setting a precedent for similar initiatives throughout the state.”
According to the NJ Department of Transportation, there have been 11,251 crashes on the White Horse Pike since 2010. Of this, 3,894 caused injuries and 80 were fatal. More than 7,000 of these crashes involved driver inattention or distracted driving and 692 involved unsafe speed.
Waterford Township Police Chief Daniel Cormaney talked about working with the community to educate drivers and pedestrians to avoid more motor vehicle accidents.
“Over the past several months Waterford Township has experienced a sharp increase in pedestrian fatalities on the White Horse Pike including the tragic deaths of two small children, ages 2 years old and 9 months old. We have since focused our efforts on both pedestrians and motorists in an attempt to educate and reduce the infractions that contribute to these types of accidents,” Cormaney said. “In coordination with the Division of Highway Traffic Safety and the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office we have been able to secure grants to continue and enhance our educational and enforcement efforts to keep our roadways safe throughout Camden County. There will be a noticeable increase in police presence, and we are asking everyone to be conscious of their surroundings while driving and drive safely to assist us in accomplishing our goals of safer roadways for our residents, pedestrians and the motoring public.”
In addition, the Division of Highway Traffic Safety has offered the assistance of other traffic safety partners in the region eager to help Camden County officials build a better connection with their community and to assist with traffic safety education where possible. Those collaborators include: Will Yarzab, North Jersey Transportation Authority’s Street Smart New Jersey; Chief Michael Morris (Ret.,) liaison to the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police; Matt Bowker, AAA South Jersey; Sue Quick, Valerie Farrow and Wendy Burke, Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey; Maureen Donnelly, Safe Kids South Jersey; Mike McCormick, Pat McCormick, NJ Manufacturers Insurance Co.; Joel Feldman, End Distracted Driving.org; Kevin Murphy, Delaware Valley River Planning Commission; and Patrick Farley, Cross County Connection.
Pine Hill Borough Police Chief Chris Winters spoke about the mission driven approach to creating safer corridors to travel in Camden County.
“Working alongside my partners at the local level, Prosecutor MacAulay and the state Division of Highway Safety, we can take a forward leaning approach to enhancing and improving the overall safety on this main thoroughfare that traverses through our collective communities,” Winters said. “This new grant funding will have an immediate impact to assist us in reaching our goals and objectives, which is to eliminate pedestrian fatalities from the Ben Franklin Bridge down to the Pinelands.”
Matt Bowker, spokesperson for AAA South Jersey, discussed AAA’s commitment to saving lives on Camden County’s roads through this initiative.
“AAA South Jersey is proud to support this lifesaving initiative in any way we can,” Bowker said. “Recent AAA research has shown that many motorists perceive unsafe driving behaviors — speeding, aggressive driving, distracted driving — as dangerous, but many still admitted to doing these behaviors in the previous 30 days. Through this collaboration, we hope to educate drivers about these dangers to reach our shared goal of zero deaths.”
The Division of Highway Traffic Safety is committed to reducing motor vehicle-related accidents and minimizing property damage, injuries, and fatalities across New Jersey’s road network. It also allocates approximately $25 million annually in federal funding to create and implement a comprehensive statewide Highway Safety Plan.
