The tragic death of NHL Hockey star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew has put a spotlight on the hundreds of New Jerseyans who are killed every year either as pedestrians or cyclists. According to New Jersey State Police data, there have been 407 fatal crashes and 429 fatalities so far in 2024. That’s a roughly 13% increase over the previous year with several months remaining on the calendar.
NJ Spotlight News anchor Briana Vannozzi spoke with Sangeeta Badlani, founder of Families for Safe Streets New Jersey, about the state’s road-safety record and the human toll that she knows all too well.
“Every time I read another traffic death… I relive the tragedy of losing my beloved son, Nikhil, in a car crash when a driver ran through a stop sign,” she said. “Behind every statistic, there’s a story of unimaginable grief and a loved one that was taken too soon.”
Badlani’s foundation advocates for stricter policies and enforcement around traffic fatalities. “We need to equip our police with proven technologies that will enforce for speeding laws, and for running the red lights and stop signs, ” she said. “We also need the state to take leadership.”
At the heart of Badlani’s work is rethinking how roads are designed through the National Roadway Safety Strategy model. “You design the roads in a way that will mitigate human mistakes,” she said. “It recognizes that humans will make errors, but our road system should not.”
Bedlani’s organization is also urging state lawmakers to pass a pending safety bill that would call for the review of all aspects of traffic safety, she said, “with specific focus on equity, access and mobility for all real users that will end traffic fatalities by 2040.”
The bill passed the full Assembly in the last legislative session and is slated to be heard by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee in September.
