“Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities” has been signed into law!

Good news to start the new year: the “Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities” has been signed into law! Thank you to Governor Baker, Representative Mike Moran, Representative William Straus, and Senator William Brownsberger for supporting this legislation at the end of the session. This bill has been a focus of the MA Vision Zero Coalition for the last few years. In November, the MAVZ Coalition sent a letter that encouraged the swift adoption before the end of the two year session:

“As we have patiently waited for this bill to become law, people have continued to die on our roadways. In September alone, we saw three fatal pedestrian crashes in Massachusetts that involved large trucks — Matthew Barker was killed while walking in Cambridge on September 1st, an unnamed person was killed in Chicopee after being struck by a dump truck on September 17th, and 98-year old Virginia “Ginny” Hale was killed after being struck by a box truck in Rockport on September 22nd. H.5103 will support not only the safety of people walking and biking, but any of our citizens who are out on our public ways without the protection of steel, seatbelts, and airbags. We encourage rapid action to pass this law to make our roads safer now, not later.”

Read more about the bill’s passage in the Boston Globe: “Pedestrians, cyclists gain protections with new law meant to reduce traffic deaths”

Read more analysis and thanks from MassBike: “An Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities is Signed Into Law!”

Read Senator Brownsberger’s detailed look at sections of the bill: “Protecting Vulnerable Road Users“