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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Sanchez, M

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

02/07/2007

HB

SHORT TITLE

Define Highway Safety Corridors

SB 575

ANALYST Moser

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

NM Department of Transportation (NMDOT)

Department of Public Safety

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 575 amends Section-7-301, NMSA 1978, changing the term “safety zone" to “safety

corridor" and defining safety corridor as a highway segment with a five-year history of ten or

more fatal or serious injury crashes as evidenced by records of the NMDOT. In addition, the

proposed language would require the NMDOT to give notice to the public of the safety corridor

designation for ten days before law enforcement may assess double fines for speeding.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

Indeterminate

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

SB 575 amends Section 66-7-301 to change the term “safety zone" to “safety corridor," and adds

a more comprehensive definition of “safety corridor." The bill also explains the steps the state

must take before it can assess double fines for speeding in a safety corridor.

Senate Bill 575 – Page

2

The bill is quite clear and specific; the NMDOT indicates that it must justify the denomination of

a segment of highway as a “safety corridor" with evidence of ten or more fatal or serious injury

crashes over the previous 5 years. In addition, the new language requires the NMDOT to give

notice to the public of the designation (as a safety corridor) for ten days before law enforcement

may assess double fines for speeding. The bill uses the words “conspicuous notice," but allows

the NMDOT to decide the form this “conspicuous notice" will take.

The NMDOT indicates a concern that the language the bill uses to establish the five year test pe-

riod may need clarification. The bill reads: “... a highway segment with a five-year history of ten

or more fatal or serious injury crashes...," but NMDOT notes it does not provide an indication of

what event will trigger the 5 year period of evaluation.

Further, the proposed language defines safety corridor as a highway segment which could be in-

terpreted as an entire corridor such as I-40, I-10 from east to west, or I-25 from north to south,

thus applying the ten or more crashes to the entire route.

The NMDOT affirms that it currently has internal procedures defining the guidelines for safety

corridor designations as required by House Bill 95 which went into effect on May 15, 2002. The

guidelines identify the responsible parties and criteria and establish a public awareness cam-

paign. NMDOT state that specifying requirements for designation of safety corridors in the stat-

ute does not allow the NMDOT the flexibility to analyze and plan corrective actions for acci-

dents. Instead, it would require the NMDOT to designate the facility a “safety corridor" based

on ten or more fatalities or serious crashes.

Finally, The NMDOT indicates that the use of the word “crashes" may be too specific. To en-

compass all possible causes of fatalities or serious injuries, the NMDOT uses the terms “traffic

accidents" or “collisions".

TECHNICAL ISSUES

The NMDOT indicates that it may also use accident or fatality rates to designate or disqualify

potential “safety corridors". These rates are determined based on exposure to risk and identify

vehicular and other conflicts that are susceptible to accident occurrences such as volume levels,

roadside activity, intersection frequency, degree of access control, alignment, and functional

classification as defined by NMDOT safety guidelines.

GM/sb