After a Massachusetts State Police trooper was killed when a wrong-way driver plowed into his cruiser on Route 1 in Lynnfield last month, state officials on Wednesday announced a series of new measures designed to prevent similar accidents.
They include installing more than 400 thermal detection camera systems to identify wrong-way drivers and immediately trigger red warning lights illuminating WRONG WAY signs. That will hopefully prompt drivers to turn around, especially at night when existing signs could otherwise be harder to see. The systems will also alert law enforcement in real time.
“We sadly cannot change the past, but we can do what is necessary to ensure that tragedies like this don’t happen again,” Governor Maura Healey said during a news conference Wednesday morning at the State Police barracks in Danvers.
The location was significant because it’s where Trooper Kevin Trainor reported for duty — until his career was cut short during a routine commute home in the early morning hours of May 6. Trainor, 30, heard a radio call about a Jeep traveling south in the northbound lanes of Route 1.
Despite being off duty, he responded to the call, and moments later, his cruiser was struck head-on; the other driver died at the scene. Trainor was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The catastrophic crash plunged State Police into mourning and added urgency to ongoing efforts by Massachusetts leaders to address a problem that occurs with disturbing frequency: A national report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found 73 fatalities on Massachusetts highways involving wrong-way drivers over a 10-year period ending 2024.
Trainor’s mother and brothers attended the event, standing alongside elected officials, transportation leaders, law enforcement, and other first responders. The family wore matching navy blue T-shirts emblazoned with white letters: “In memory of Trooper Kevin Trainor.”
Also present were the parents of Christopher Dailey, a Gloucester High School graduate and hockey team captain who was killed on Route 128 last summer.
Endicott College Police Chief Kerry Ramsdell said her agency continues to mourn Sergeant Jeremy Cole, who died after his vehicle was struck by someone driving the wrong way on Interstate 95 in 2024.
“It’s about preventing the tragedies that brought these families here today,” Healey said. “Kevin, Chris, Jeremy — all of them should still be here this morning.”
The detection systems are already being rolled out. Officials said the installations will continue throughout 2026 and 2027.
And they’re already working as intended, Healey said.
In Danvers, for example, a new system successfully alerted a wayward driver earlier Wednesday morning. The person was able to turn around and avoid merging onto Route 128 the wrong way, officials said.
“This is about more than just the rules of the road. It’s about people’s lives,” Healey said.
The systems use thermal sensors to detect errant vehicles, said Neil Boudreau, Massachusetts Department of Transportation assistant administrator for traffic safety.
The cameras may not transmit a sharp image, but they do work in a range of conditions: “rain, snow, sleet, dark, light,” he said. “Because it’s measuring the heat. So that’s why we’re using that technology.”
He said the red flashing LED lights are especially striking after dark, which is when drivers are more likely to miss a sign or get confused.
In addition to installing the detection systems, transportation officials will improve pavement markings, ramp design, signage, and lighting at highway access points across the state.
They’re also exploring ways to use navigation apps to alert nearby drivers, said Jonathan Gulliver, state transportation undersecretary.
The total cost of the changes is estimated around $75 million, officials said.
The Massachusetts Senate also unanimously passed a budget amendment with similar objectives. MassDOT has had a wrong-way detection pilot program in place since 2022, including technology installed across 16 points on exits and on-ramps across the state.
The legislation, which the Senate adopted as an amendment to its $63 billion state budget plan, would expand that existing program. It proposed that transportation officials conduct a study to improve roadway safety for drivers over 70, provide special law enforcement training on the subject, and analyze documented incidents of wrong-way driving.
MassDOT currently tracks wrong-way violations issued on the Massachusetts Turnpike and Boston’s Callahan and Sumner Tunnels, but it doesn’t include incidents on local roads, cases where drivers corrected course before being cited by law enforcement, or crashes charged under broader offenses.
Legislators began drafting the measure after Dailey’s death last summer. It will “signify our statutory commitment to what is happening here today,” said state Senator Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican who sponsored the budget amendment, speaking during Wednesday’s announcement.
He cited data from Connecticut showing an 86 percent reduction in wrong-way driving incidents where detection systems are installed.
Less than one month after Trainor’s death, another wrong-way driver struck a State Police cruiser in Peabody — also on Route 1. The trooper injured in that crash was in the same academy class as Trainor; they were close friends, State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble said Wednesday.
He said troopers have responded to 680 reports of wrong-way drivers across Massachusetts in roughly the past two years. Danvers ranks among the top 10 communities for such incidents.
Officials said they’re using statewide data to determine where the detection systems are most needed and will focus They’re focusing on 500 locations considered high-risk “due to driver confusion or roadway design,” according to a news release.
Officials also issued a stern warning to drivers: Pay attention and don’t drive drunk.
“Massachusetts state troopers willingly accept the risks that come with this profession,” Noble said. “But our troopers and police officers should not be the only line of defense against wrong-way driving.”
Lea Skene can be reached at lea.skene@globe.com. Follow her on X @lea_skene.