After a horrific fatal crash on Paterson Plank Road, Democratic nominee for Hudson County Executive Craig Guy wants traffic delineators, more enforcement, and improved signage on the dangerous Jersey City Heights thoroughfare.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“We have to do more to make Paterson Plank Road safe and avoid any further loss of life, and this rapid crisis response plan involves taking immediate action to accomplish that goal not in years or months, but right now,” Guy, said in a statement.
“I would like to thank the many partners who met this week and presented ideas and suggestions for how to make this road safer, especially Mayor Steven Fulop, Mayor Ravi Bhalla, County Prosecutor Esther Suarez, Sheriff Frank Schillari, our County Commissioners and the professional staff at each entity.”
The Paterson Plank Road Rapid Crisis Response Plan includes installing traffic delineators on Paterson Plank Road from the Manhattan Avenue intersection near Washington Park to south of the Second Street Light Rail Station to separate the North and South bound lanes.
Additionally, Guy is calling for increased traffic enforcement for speeding and drunk driving along Paterson Plank Road, led by the sheriff’s office in coordination with the Jersey City and Hoboken Police Departments.
He also mentioned installing improved signage along Paterson Plank Road, including digital speed limit signs and message boards advising motorists to slow down.
Guy is also committed to exploring the use of permanent lane barriers along Paterson Plank Road to prevent head-on collisions, as well as traffic calming measures such as speed bumps, rumble strips, lane narrowing and other approaches.
County engineers and planners have been directed to immediately assess these permanent solutions in consultation with their counterparts in Jersey City and Hoboken.
Furthermore, county government will be funding these traffic safety improvements in order to allow them to be installed immediately, rather than waiting for funding from state and federal transportation agencies which is the usual practice.
County officials plan to seek reimbursement from the New Jersey State Department of Transportation and the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority.
The early morning Monday morning crash saw a BMW SUV collide head-on with a Kia sedan, claiming three young lives. The third BMW passenger, a 19-year-old woman, is in critical condition.
The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office has not provided any further details on how the crash occurred after providing an update Monday afternoon.
“We’re not going to wait another day to make this road safer, and if that ends up costing us some money then so be it. I want Hudson County residents to know that we are taking this problem seriously and doing everything in our power to fix it,” Guy added.
Shortly after details of the crash began to emerge, Safe Streets JC pointed out that the county has received a $12 million grant from the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority’s Local Safety Program to rehab Paterson Plank Road.
“Horrific fatal crashes like this should never happen on a 25 mph road. Hudson County was awarded a $12 million grant to add safety improvements to this stretch after a 2020 study indicated a high rate of crashes compared to other county roads, while cyclists and pedestrians were at a particularly high risk of severe injury or death on Paterson Plank Road,” they said in a statement.
“The safety improvements remain incomplete, and now three lives have been lost. The situation on our streets is urgent. Safe streets advocates have been clamoring for changes on high-injury streets for years. How many more lives need to be lost or forever changed before that sense of urgency is realized by our leaders at every level of government?”
Delineators won’t stop a car going 100mph. Photo opp.
What should they do? They can’t go back in time and raise people right. Anyone driving at that rate of speed on that road was clearly raised by wolves. No morals nor accountability.
Did Tom DeGise retire early and somehow John Heinis missed it? (Impossible!) So under what legal authority is Craig Guy doing and saying all this? He is only a chief of staff. The executive authority is the county executive, and it’s DeGise until January 1st.