Two public speakers urged the Bergen County Board of Commissioners to move quickly on a county Local Safety Action Plan after two recent pedestrian crashes on county-maintained roads.

Chris Nowell told the board that a four-year-old boy, Jalen, was killed two weeks earlier after being struck by a driver making a left turn on Ramapo Valley Road (U.S. 202) at Oak Street in Oakland. He also described a separate crash the previous week in which a 14-year-old girl was struck while in a crosswalk at an uncontrolled intersection on County Road (C.R.) 501 in Demorest; the driver appeared to be making a left turn.

"If you haven't visited the intersection and the memorial that's there, please go and spend some time there," Nowell said. He described both sites as dangerous and said the county's Local Safety Action Plan (LSAP) produced a systemic analysis identifying high-priority locations for low-cost safety improvements.

Nut graf: Nowell and another speaker urged prompt county action, saying the LSAP identifies hundreds of priority intersections but county capacity for physical redesigns is limited. They asked commissioners not to let the plan sit without additional funding or accelerated implementation.

Details and requests: Nowell said the LSAP identified 310 priority 1 intersections and 540 total priority intersections countywide. He said the engineering and planning department holds the final LSAP from the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) and that county staff have discussed adding more crash data, but he urged commissioners not to "stall on getting it to you for review." Nowell also said that in 2023 municipalities made more than 150 requests to the county for traffic or safety-related actions and that current county capacity is roughly one to two intersection redesigns per year plus about 20 minor improvements annually.

Resident Patrick Diorama described a local, low-cost intervention: center-of-road pedestrian signs that visually narrow lanes and helped slow drivers in his transit-oriented neighborhood. Diorama said the signs were installed after residents raised the issue with their municipal council and urged the county to treat road safety as a political priority requiring elected-official engagement.

Decisions and action recorded: After public comment, the chair moved to close the public hearing on the LSAP; the motion was seconded and the public hearing was closed. The transcript does not record commission votes to adopt the LSAP at this meeting.

Ending: Speakers asked for follow-up meetings with county staff; the transcript includes a request from Nowell that commissioners respond to requests for meetings to discuss implementation details.