NJDOT is trying to make Route 55 safer after five people died in crashes this summer

The New Jersey Department of Transportation is looking to make Route 55 safer after a string of fatal crashes on the highway this summer.

Juan Nordelo, NJDOT’s chief of staff, sent a letter to South Jersey legislators Wednesday detailing an action plan for the 40-mile highway running from Cumberland County up to the Route 42 entrance. The safety measures focus primarily on the stretch of roadway from Elk Township to Deptford, the letter says.

The department has already added four portable signs advising drivers to use caution on the highway and informing them that they are in a high-crash area, with two in each direction at mileposts 47.6 and 52.4, according to Steve Schapiro, an NJDOT spokesperson.

Staff recently put in a work order to install 75 new “wrong way” signs at five interchanges, including Exits 45, 48, 50, 53, and 56. Installation is set to begin in the next few weeks, Schapiro said in an email. NJDOT is also considering adding signs at three median U-turns in Millville and Vineland.

Next steps include a project set to begin next month to continue clearing vegetation on Route 55 to create zones where drivers can stop safely when needed, and more “guiderail” additions as safety barriers along the highway.

“The collective intent of the efforts is to ensure motorists accessing NJ-55 from Exits 45 to 56 have more guidance to reduce the chances of driving the wrong way. Additionally, the ultimate installation of [a] guiderail will also help to prevent vehicles from leaving the roadway and reducing the severity of impacts should they occur,” Nordelo wrote.

The plan follows four fatal crashes this summer on Route 55 that killed five people total. On July 5, two women died after the driver lost control of the vehicle, ran off the roadway, and struck a tree. A week later, a man died after he drove his pickup truck the wrong way down the highway and collided with a tractor-trailer. A week after that, a woman died after she crashed her vehicle into a tree while fleeing a police traffic stop.

Then, last month, a Delaware County school board member died after a Tesla crossed the grass median, hit a tree, and struck his car on the other side of the highway.

After the first two crashes, nine state legislators united to request that NJDOT examine how Route 55’s design could have contributed to the tragedies.

That effort was led by Assemblyman Bill Moen, who grew up using Route 55 as his main traffic artery. Moen said that NJDOT’s letter was a good first step, but that the message does not “close the loop” on work to make Route 55 safer.

Of South Jersey’s limited-access highways, the majority of Route 55 is relatively safe, according to an Inquirer analysis of NJDOT fatality data over the last six years. That analysis found that seven South Jersey corridors are particularly problematic, with a 1.3-mile stretch of I-76 seeing 10 deadly crashes since 2019.

But one 0.6-mile stretch of Route 55 around Mantua Township, Gloucester County, has seen four fatal crashes in that time, more than any other part of the highway, including the wrong-way fatal crash in July.

Last year, on another stretch in Elk Township, three teenagers died in a crash that also injured a woman and three children.

Moen said he hopes NJDOT considers adding more lighting to Route 55 to brighten the highway at night, and coordinating with local and state police to enforce traffic laws there.

Still, he said, the action plan proves that the public’s desire for a safer Route 55 is possible.

“It’s an example of government working,” Moen said.