LANL will install traffic cameras along "Truck Route" after wrecks, unsafe driving complaints

Mar. 26—Those cruising into Los Alamos, whether it's for work or outdoor recreation, soon will see traffic cameras peering at them along a certain stretch of road.

The U.S. Energy Department plans to install four traffic cameras on East Jemez Road following complaints about frequent speeding and aggressive driving around Los Alamos National Laboratory, combined with two recent head-on collisions in that area — one that killed a lab employee.

The federal agency owns this road — also known as the Truck Route — which runs between the lab and N.M. 4.

The lab doesn't have the authority nor any plans to take action against members of the general public. For now, the cameras will serve as traffic-calming devices rather than a means to ticket scofflaws.

"Our No. 1 priority is that everyone gets to work and home safely every day," lab spokeswoman Jennifer Talhelm wrote in an email. "Installing speed cameras to encourage drivers to slow down is one way to do this."

The lab didn't answer questions about whether it planned to impose penalties on employees caught on camera driving too fast or unsafely. And it provided no information about whether photos and data collected on lawbreaking motorists might be shared with Los Alamos police, which patrols the Truck Route as part of an interagency agreement.

A manager at the U.S. Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration told the Los Alamos County Council last week traffic safety needed to be bolstered as the lab's growing workforce has led to more commuters traveling the road.

"We will spearhead an initiative to deter and eliminate aggressive driving," said Ted Wyka, the agency's field office manager. "Specifically, speeding, cutting off drivers, failing to signal, failing to yield, tailgating and road rage."

The cameras will be installed soon and will be activated sometime in the next few months, Wyka said.

Wyka said he aims to collaborate with all levels of government by inviting input from Los Alamos County, local police, state transportation officials, area tribes and federal agencies such as the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management.

At the moment, neither the county nor police officials know how the lab's cameras might affect future traffic enforcement on the road, if at all.

"We have been in contact with LANL personnel regarding traffic safety, though no combined strategies have been approved," police Chief Dino Sgambellone wrote in an email.

County spokeswoman Julie Williams-Hill echoed the police chief's uncertainty about what the lab's cameras would mean for local authorities.

"We don't know what LANL is hoping to do with those cameras because they really haven't had a conversation with us about that," Williams-Hill said. "So we don't know what their intent is."

Wyka made it clear more action is needed to calm traffic in the area.

On Feb. 27, lab scientist Phillip Leonard, 44, was killed in a three-car crash on N.M. 501, a highway that connects to East Jemez Road. About a week later, a four-car crash on nearby N.M. 502 put two people in the hospital.

Wyka indicated he is talking to officials in neighboring counties and pueblo governors about installing speed cameras in other high-traffic areas, such as Española.

Lab employees have told him driving to and from work can feel stressful and hazardous, he said.

"This is a terror part of their day, commuting to and from work," Wyka said. "And this has to stop."