Car-Pedestrian Crashes Are Not On The Rise In Montclair, Police Say

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Car crashes involving pedestrians are trending down in Montclair, local police say – even with a rise in development and traffic.

Last week, several officials with the Montclair Police Department attended the town council meeting to provide an update about local traffic safety efforts. The main topic? Pedestrian-car strikes.

Police Chief Todd Conforti said he requested to make a presentation at the council meeting in response to repeated concerns he and other Montclair police officers have been hearing from local residents.

“The first thing I want to dispel right now is there's this perception or disbelief that we're experiencing more accidents now than we ever had before,” Conforti told the council (watch the video below, cued to the discussion).

Excluding the “COVID years” – 2021 and 2022 – the town has seen a relatively consistent number of annual car crashes for the past 15 years: between 1,300 and 1,500.

In 2023, Montclair saw 1,361 total accidents, Conforti said, which is back to the typical range after dipping to abnormal lows during the pandemic due to a lack of traffic.

“Now, I'm not saying that that's a good number, I'm not saying that's a bad number,” he continued. “I'm not okay with that. Of course, we want to see the accidents come down. Of course, we do not want people injured.”

But enforcement isn’t the problem, he added.

Conforti said that there is a popular perception that if police give out more tickets, the number of accidents will automatically drop.

“That’s just not the case,” he said.

According to Lieutenant Stephanie Egnezzo – the department’s traffic supervisor – the popular belief that speeding is behind most of the collisions between cars and people in Montclair is also false.

“Most of our pedestrian crashes occurred during the day in normal dry conditions,” Egnezzo said.

The lieutenant said it’s important to note that the numbers of crashes is “trending downward” when you figure the increased development that’s been taking place in Montclair.

“So when you look at the number as a whole, we haven't increased,” Egnezzo said, adding that police continue to work with the town’s Vision Zero Task Force to make improvements.

Montclair police continue to conduct “decoy operations” for drivers using funds provided by a pedestrian safety grant, she said, adding that the educational component of the campaigns is just as important as the number of tickets that are written.

“When we do these warning campaigns, we do hand out warning cards that actually have the information on them so that people understand what the statutes are to protect pedestrians,” Egnezzo said.

“We have also discovered that not all of our pedestrian crashes are the driver’s fault,” she pointed out, saying that people have a responsibility to make sure they’re crossing streets with “due regard for their own safety.”

“That being said, most of our enforcement efforts are geared towards motor vehicles, because we know in a motor vehicle versus a pedestrian crash that the pedestrian has much more to lose injury-wise.”

As such, Montclair police are trying to change the behavior of drivers, Egnezzo said. This includes a troubling trend: drivers aren’t making left turns wisely, neglecting to yield to pedestrians at intersections.

A simple warning sign at the intersection could make a world of difference, she suggested.

According to Chief Conforti, Montclair police are doing the best they can – but it’s also up to local drivers and pedestrians to do their part.

“The point I do want to make is we're going to have to rely on not just on enforcement to make the streets safer,” Conforti told council members at last week’s meeting.

“In order to change people's behavior, it's going to take much more,” he urged.

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