‘Striving for zero accidents’
CT Department of Transportation to audit 3-mile section of New Milford’s Route 7
NEW MILFORD — In the coming days, the state Department of Transportation will assess an about 3-mile stretch of Route 7 in real time to determine how the state road can be made safer for everyone.
“This is a high priority for the town itself,” said Chuck Ballard, road design engineer for New Milford’s Public Works department. “From 2013 to 2023, there’s been 15 road fatalities [on Route 7] … We’ve seen a higher rate of speed over the last few years, which the New Milford Police Department has done a great job at enforcement, and we are looking to do more to keep the traveling public and all road users safer in the future.”
In New Milford, Route 7, also known as Danbury Road, runs past several retail plazas, the high school campus and housing. The state road has also been the site of multiple accidents in the last six months, including a fatal three-car crash on Sept. 22 in front of Italia Mia Restaurant & Pizzeria. A 17-year-old New Milford High School student was killed in the crash, and three others were injured, including a teenager.
New Milford police reported 254 accidents on Danbury Road in 2023, with 11 accidents involving injuries and three fatalities, according to Police Chief Spencer Cerruto. Earlier this year, a New York pedestrian was killed after attempting to cross Route 7 near New Milford High School.
New Milford began working on a “multifaceted approach” this past fall to improve safety on town roadways, with a focus on education, enforcement, engineering, technology and selfresponsibility, Mayor Pete Bass has said.
For Route 7, New Milford police have appointed an officer to perform speed enforcement to reduce speeding violations on the road. The town is also considering participating in a statewide program to install traffic cameras and other automated traffic enforcement safety devices to detect and collect evidence of alleged traffic violations.
The state Department of Transportation promised to prioritize repairs to traffic lights on Route 7 and perform a road safety audit along the state road to determine New Milford’s options for safety improvements.
“Really what this process will do for the community is basically give them a menu of options that could improve safety,” said Josh Morgan, communications director for the state DOT. “Some of them could be quickhitting, short-term, very low-cost to something that is a multi-year, multimillion dollar type project. Really, the nice thing about the road safety audit process is that the community — the mayor, the officials in town, residents, they’ll be able to see what may be possible out there.”
A virtual pre-audit meeting between the DOT and New Milford officials will be held March 26.
The field audit of New Milford’s Route 7 corridor will take place March 27 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with local officials, DOT staff and members of New Milford’s Public Works department touring the corridor on a minibus. Bass said state representatives were also invited to attend.
The audit will cover an about 3-mile stretch of Route 7, starting near Scooters Bar & Grill at 507 Danbury Road all the way north to Veterans Bridge, Morgan said. He said DOT staff will look at locations on Route 7 to make traffic signal improvements, pedestrian safety improvements and different roadway configurations, among other structural improvements.
Morgan said the federally-funded road safety audit involves a threemonth process from the field audit on March 27 to the time the DOT files its safety recommendations to New Milford. He said the average cost for conducting a road safety audit is $15,000 to $20,000 for DOT staff time and the consultants that help compile the audit — all of which is funded by the state.
Morgan said he anticipates the results of the audit will be submitted to New Milford between the end of June and beginning of July. He said the DOT will also reference programs or funding resources that may be available, such as the DOT’s Community Connectivity Grant Program, which provides funding for targeted infrastructure improvements identified through road safety audits.
‘Striving for zero accidents’
Morgan said the last road safety audit performed along Danbury Road was in 2016. However, the 2016 audit was conducted between Still River Drive and Dodd Road to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists traveling along the corridor, according to the audit.
“We would typically do a few streets and a smaller section [of the road],” Morgan said, “but now
we’re looking at 2, 3, 5mile corridors where drastic improvements can be made to improve safety.”
Ballard said New Milford has taken “an approach for overall town safety” for the 2024 road safety audit along Route 7, and the town’s application was “enhanced by information from our department.” He said the 2024 road safety audit will be performed by FHI Studio, a Hartford-based engineering consulting firm hired by the state DOT.
As for the audit’s findings, Ballard said, “I would like the consultant’s opinion on ways to address higher speeds as well as pedestrian access in the future.”
Bass said reducing speeding and accidents on Route 7 “in a safe and efficient manner” and adding more lighting to the road are his chief goals for the road safety audit.
“We are striving for zero accidents,” he said. “It’s a very, very lofty goal, but when you put that decision in mind, any way to reduce accidents is a beneficial way and Route 7 has the majority of our accidents and speeding.”