Unified focus on traffic safety is essential

This is an op-ed that ran on April 17, 2025, in the Los Alamos Daily Post and the Los Alamos Reporter.

Unified focus on traffic safety is essential

By Thom Mason, Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory supports Los Alamos County’s recent efforts to control speeding and enforce traffic safety through an ordinance approved last week to install automated speed cameras in various locations around the county. The ordinance complements efforts taken by the Laboratory in recent months to further promote safer driving on and around Lab property. The Laboratory has installed mobile speed cameras around the site; utilized GPS systems in government vehicles that track speed, seatbelt usage, and location of government vehicles; and partnered with local, state, and federal law enforcement to combat unsafe driving in our region.

We all have an interest in keeping our roads and community safer. Aggressive and irresponsible traffic-related behavior on our site and around the county threatens the safety of all of us who live, work, and visit here. While the Lab takes road safety extremely seriously, we can only protect the roads on National Nuclear Security Administration property and can only enforce the rules with Lab employees and contractors. By extending the area in which authorities are monitoring safety, Los Alamos County is sending a message our entire community can get behind: Unsafe driving will not be tolerated.

The Lab and the county have always had an integral relationship when it comes to safety. The addition of speed cameras is another example of the county and the Lab working toward a common goal of ensuring the safety of the community and our site. Collaborating on responsible driving mirrors steps the Lab has taken with the Los Alamos Fire Department on wildfire preparedness and the Los Alamos Police Department on security.

While I am writing to commend the county’s decision to invest in speed cameras, I want to make it clear that government and law enforcement can only do so much. Although these steps by the Lab and the county are essential to protecting our roads, everyone who gets behind the wheel must also take personal responsibility for safety. Nothing — not an on-site meeting you’re late for, an urgent text, or the need to shorten a boring drive — is more important than our fellow drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians. We all must respect the rules of the road so that everyone makes it to work and home safely.  

Op-ed in the Los Alamos Daily Post
Op-ed in the Los Alamos Reporter