Massachusetts Senate looks to reduce wrong-way driving, honor fallen MSP trooper Kevin Trainor

Change may be coming to Massachusetts roads to help prevent wrong-way driving, with the state Senate unanimously passing a safety budget amendment that members say will save lives.

The Senate is honoring the memory of Trooper Kevin Trainor, the latest victim of a wrong-way driving crash, as it hands the proposed multilayered protocol to the House just a week after the fallen Massachusetts state trooper was laid to rest.

The Senate held a moment of silence in Trainor’s honor in its Chamber after the passage on Thursday.

“Wrong-way driving is a scourge on our highways,” Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said during budget debates. “It happens far more frequently than we understand, mostly because when it occurs, the driver self-corrects, and it never gets reported.”

“When that doesn’t happen, all too often it is fatal,” he added.

The amendment would implement and maintain a “comprehensive protocol” to prevent wrong-way driving on limited-access roadways across Massachusetts. It would bring directional striping on access ramps, adequate signage, lane delineators and detection systems to alert wrong-way drivers and notify public safety agencies in real time.

Messaging systems would notify motorists of the threat of a wrong-way driver.

If enacted, the protocol would be “implemented in the most expeditious manner possible,” according to the amendment’s language. A multiyear plan would identify and prioritize access ramps and intersections where the tools are most needed, while a budget would be prepared to effect the change.

Speaking poignantly, Tarr said his office had been developing the amendment at the time of Trainor’s death on May 6.

Trainor was supposed to finish his shift at 2 a.m. that Wednesday morning. But at 2:01 a.m., a call came in that a Jeep driver was heading the wrong way down Route 1 in Lynnfield.

At 2:03 a.m., the driver collided with Trainor’s cruiser, and hours later, the 30-year-old trooper was pronounced dead at Mass General Hospital. The wrong-way driver, Hernan Marrero, 50, of Boston, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Working with police chiefs, experts from MIT and UMass Lowell, Massachusetts State Police, and the Essex County DA’s Office, among other entities, he said that the goal was to “understand everything we could about wrong-way and drunk driving.”

A string of fatal wrong-way driving crashes spurred the movement.

Tarr mentioned the deaths of Endicott College Police Sgt. Jeremy Cole, who died the night before Thanksgiving in 2024 after being struck by an alleged drunk driver, and 18-year-old Christopher Dailey, of Gloucester, who died last July 4, days after an 81-year-old man plowed into the car he had been in with three other teenagers.

The senator highlighted how he traveled to Connecticut to witness wrong-way driving detection devices in action. The main takeaway from the trip, he said, was learning how the tools have led to an “86% reduction” of such incidents.

“This is a deadly situation. It leads to tragic consequences.” Tarr said. “But it is something we can do something about. We have the science to back us up. The research to inform our decisions. A compelling reason to act. And now we must summon the desire to act.”

Also included in the amendment is a requirement that the state Secretary of Public Safety consult with the Secretary of Transportation to develop and implement training practices to ensure all peace officer training includes instruction on wrong-way driving.

Meanwhile, the Registrar of Motor Vehicles would develop annual public service announcements on the dangers and prevention of wrong-way driving. The state Department of Transportation, in partnership with other agencies, would also conduct a feasibility study on improving roadway safety for drivers over the age of 70.

Tarr said that the amendment’s provisions would further “embrace” what the DOT and the Healey administration have begun by installing detection devices in a pilot program.

Sen. Joan Lovely, D-Beverly, said 16 ramps are protected in Massachusetts with detectors equipped with LED lights, sirens and cameras.

“We know we need more,” Lovely said. “We have seen a reduction in the deaths from wrong-way driving since these were installed. … But last year, there were 20 deadly crashes, and that is 20 too many.”

“Every ramp that goes unprotected,” she added, “is a risk of another Kevin Trainor, someone else’s Jeremy Cole, someone else’s Christopher Dailey will not make it home. We need to get this done.”

Sen. Paul Feeney, D-Foxboro, highlighted a devastating wrong-way crash caused by an alleged drunk driver late on Christmas night in 2023. The collision on the Somerset side of Veteran’s Memorial Bridge killed a husband and wife and their teenage grandson.

“This is not a magic wand,” Feeney said of the amendment. “But we can embrace technology and smart policy and listen to our partners in law enforcement and figure out a better way and be deliberate about making this less likely.”