New safety initiative announced to reduce crashes along N.J.’s White Horse Pike

This story originally appeared on 6abc.

“It’s never been as bad as it is now.”

Lindsey Fulleylove works on the White Horse Pike in Berlin, Camden County and has seen many crashes.

“I don’t know if people aren’t paying attention, what’s going on,” said Lindsey Fulleylove, of Atco.

“White Horse Pike has always been a very dangerous road,” said Donna McCumbers of Sicklerville. “Cars fly and people go through red lights. They try to beat that yellow light.”

Authorities say in the past four years crashes and fatalities have increased along the busy state road.

Last year alone there were seven fatal crashes in Camden County, causing eight deaths.

In December of last year, a two-year-old and a nine-month-old were killed in Waterford Township.

On Monday, it was announced that $400,000 in federal funding is being allocated by the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety to improve safety and reduce crashes.

“This new grant funding and initiative will have a significant impact on our goal, which is to eliminate pedestrian fatalities from the Ben Franklin Bridge to the Pinelands,” said Pine Hill Police Chief Christopher Winters.

The money will be split among 14 local police departments to increase patrols along the pike and for educational programs.

Officers will also be on the lookout for infrastructure needs like lighting and sidewalks.

“There is federal funding for a lot of those things so we’ll certainly be on high alert to find those things and address them as we go through this,” said Waterford Twp. Police Chief Daniel Cormaney.

The initiative is supposed to last for six months.

The Camden County prosecutor says many of the accidents that have happened recently have been the result of distracted driving or speeding.