Sen. John Cronin joins new state commission on veterans employment

State Sen. John Cronin, a Fitchburg Democrat and Army combat veteran, took a seat Wednesday, Oct. 28, on a state commission that will study the barriers veterans face in finding work.

Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll swore in Cronin and four other members of the Veterans Employment Opportunities Commission at the Edge4Vets fall workshop at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Gov. Maura Healey’s office announced.

Senate President Karen E. Spilka appointed Cronin, who represents the Worcester and Middlesex District. According to his legislative biography, the district covers Ashby, Clinton, Fitchburg, Groton, Lancaster, Leominster, Lunenburg, Shirley, Townsend and Westford.

Cronin served as an Army infantry officer in the war in Afghanistan and left the service as a captain in 2018. Before his 2020 election to the Senate, he worked as a veterans advocate at a legal services center in Boston.

“As a veteran, I know how important it is to ensure that those leaving military service have opportunities to build meaningful careers,” Cronin said. “I am honored to work alongside fellow veterans and experts in the field to support that transition and expand economic opportunity for those who have served.”

What the commission will do

A 2004 state law calls for the five-member commission to investigate whether employers discriminate against veterans because of their military status. The commission must deliver its findings and recommendations to the state’s veterans services secretary by March 1 each year.

The administration said the panel will also examine broader workforce challenges. According to the state, about 200,000 service members leave the military nationwide each year, and many struggle to find jobs that match their skills.

“From day one, we’ve been committed to making Massachusetts the best state in the nation for veterans and military families,” Healey said. “That means supporting them at every stage of their lives, including making it easier to find good jobs.”

Who sits on the commission

Four other members joined Cronin:

• Tom LaRose, the commission chair, directs the state’s Veteran Education, Employment and Training Office and served in the Army. Veterans Services Secretary Eric Goralnick appointed him.
• David Abdoo, chief of staff and chief administrative officer at MassDevelopment, previously served in the Massachusetts Army National Guard. Economic Development Secretary Eric Paley appointed him.
• Joseph B. Fuller teaches at Harvard Business School and co-leads its Managing the Future of Work initiative. House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano appointed him.
• Jooyi Ryan, an employment coordinator with the VA Boston Veteran Readiness and Employment Program, served in the Coast Guard and Coast Guard Reserve. Healey appointed her.

Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Lauren Jones named Christopher Mills, a MassHire local veterans employment representative and Massachusetts Army National Guard veteran, as an ad hoc member. The administration plans to name more ad hoc members later.

“We all hang up the uniform at some point, and we want to ensure all our veterans find that second meaningful career when they make the transition,” LaRose said.

Businesses sign on

The administration also said 32 Massachusetts companies have earned certification or pledged to join its Veteran Ready Business program, a free state certification that encourages employers to hire veterans and their spouses.

Companies commit to the program for two years at no cost. In return, the Executive Office of Veterans Services shares their job openings with veterans and sends them information about veteran hiring events.

Healey has also expanded hiring incentives. The HERO Act, which she signed in 2024, raised the Vet-Hire Tax Credit to $2,500 for small businesses that hire chronically unemployed or low-income veterans.

Clark study ranks Massachusetts among top 10 states for share of forest lost

Massachusetts ranks among the 10 states that lost the largest percentage of their own forestland to development and farming from 1990 to 2017, according to a new report from researchers at Clark University in Worcester.

A Clark team headed by Christopher A. Williams and Natalia Hasler of the university’s School of Climate, Environment, and Society produced the report for the Forest Carbon Data Partnership, a coalition of conservation groups led by the Open Space Institute. Clark posted the working paper, “The U.S. Forest Monitor: Establishing a Historical Baseline for the Drivers and Climate Impacts of Permanent Forest Loss,” to its Digital Commons repository, which lists a publication date of Thursday, Oct. 29.

The partnership says the report’s data on permanent forest loss and its climate effects can help decision-makers aim conservation spending where it will have the greatest impact.

The report finds Massachusetts permanently lost more than 2.6% of the forestland it had in 1990. That ranking measures each state’s loss against its own forest cover. Delaware and New Jersey joined Massachusetts as the only northeastern states in that top 10. Southern states filled the other seven spots, led by Georgia, which lost more than 4%.

State environmental officials count about 3 million acres of forest in Massachusetts, or 57% of the state’s land, according to a 2024 presentation by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

The report identifies 46 hotspots where development drives concentrated forest loss and 15 where cropland expansion does. Clark researchers collaborated on an interactive tool, now available at USForestMonitor.org, that lets the public explore those hotspots and forest loss patterns in their own region.

Nearly 10 million acres nationwide

Across the country, about 9.8 million acres of forest gave way to development or cropland during the 28-year study period, according to the report. The researchers put the pace at up to 350,000 acres a year, or roughly one football field every two minutes.

Cropland expansion accounts for about half of the national loss and spreads widely across rural areas. Development-driven losses cluster around growing cities and suburbs.

Measured by total acreage, the picture shifts south. Eleven states in the southeastern and south-central U.S. account for about 70% of the national loss: Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Arkansas, Alabama, Virginia, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee. Massachusetts falls outside that group. Some counties lost as much as 40% of their 1990 forests, and the three counties with the highest percentage losses all sit in Virginia.

Climate costs

The researchers estimate the lost forests committed about 2.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to the atmosphere. That figure counts carbon released during clearing along with carbon the trees would have absorbed in later years. Cleared land reflects more sunlight than forest canopy, which offsets about 15% of that climate burden, according to the report.

Each year of U.S. forest loss carries a climate cost equal to about 1% of the nation’s annual fossil fuel emissions and about 8% of the carbon that remaining U.S. forests absorb each year, the report found.

Development-driven losses fell after the 2008 recession, but the researchers found evidence that forest loss rates have started to climb again.

How the monitor works

The team built the U.S. Forest Monitor on annual land-cover maps from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection program, which classifies land in 30-meter squares of about a quarter acre each.

To separate permanent conversion from temporary clearing such as timber harvests and wildfires, the researchers counted land only if it became developed or cropland and stayed that way for at least five years. That approach leaves out forest converted to pasture, which satellite data often confuse with shrubland, and it means the data trail real-world conversion by about five years. The report also notes that the team has not yet completed a formal accuracy assessment of the mapping.

What comes next

Over the coming year, the researchers plan to extend the data through 2024 and shift to the USGS National Land Cover Database as their source. They are also exploring an early warning system to flag likely conversions sooner, and the report says the online tool will add information on other forest benefits such as clean water and wildlife habitat.

Williams, a professor in Clark’s Graduate School of Geography and interim director of the university’s George Perkins Marsh Institute, presented his forest-loss tools at a Climate Week NYC session with the Open Space Institute.

The Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, the Land Trust Alliance, American Forests and Clark also belong to the Forest Carbon Data Partnership, which maintains the monitor. A $1 million lead grant from the Doris Duke Foundation supports the work through March 2028.

The researchers say state-level briefings built from the data could help land trusts and policymakers decide where forest protection would do the most good. The report includes a sample briefing for Pennsylvania.

Driver dies in head-on crash involving 3 vehicles on Route 20 in Shrewsbury

A driver died after a head-on crash that involved three vehicles on Route 20 in Shrewsbury Monday, Oct. 26, police said.

Shrewsbury police and firefighters, along with Worcester EMS paramedics, responded at about 11:51 a.m. to Hartford Turnpike at its intersection with Edgemere Boulevard for a report of a crash with injuries, according to a statement from the Shrewsbury Police Department.

Officers found three vehicles at the scene. A 2011 Honda Accord had been traveling west, and a 2019 Ford F-250 towing a trailer had been heading east. A 2005 Kenworth oil tanker truck sat in the eastbound lane, waiting to turn left onto Edgemere Boulevard.

The initial investigation found that the F-250 and the Honda collided head-on. The tanker truck took secondary damage after the first impact, police said.

Responding officers found the Honda’s driver unresponsive with serious injuries and immediately began lifesaving measures. The driver died later at a local hospital. Police did not identify the driver.

The department’s statement did not say whether anyone else suffered injuries or whether investigators expect to file charges.

Shrewsbury police Officers Charland and Fleury continue to investigate the crash with members of the Central Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council Crash Reconstruction Team and Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office.

The regional crash team, known as CEMLEC, provides reconstruction services to 77 cities and towns across five counties, according to a June 2025 state grant presentation from the unit. Its fully certified members each have about 375 hours or more of specialized training, and more than 91% of the 58 crashes the team investigated in 2024 involved serious injuries or deaths, the presentation said.

“The Shrewsbury Police Department expresses our condolences to the loved ones of the victim of this tragic crash,” the department said in the statement.

UMass Chan lands $4.1M to study whether metals affect Alzheimer’s risk

Researchers at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester will use a $4.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study whether exposure to metals affects a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Honghuang Lin, a professor of medicine and co-director of the Program in Digital Medicine at UMass Chan, leads the project, the medical school announced Wednesday, Oct. 28.

Lin and his colleagues will analyze blood samples and health records from more than 3,000 participants in the Framingham Heart Study. They plan to measure 18 metals, among them cadmium and zinc.

The team will look for links between those metal levels and signs of cognitive decline, including changes in brain structure. Researchers will also track which participants went on to develop Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia.

“Some metals are known to affect the nervous system, while others are essential for normal brain function,” Lin said.

“What we don’t yet understand is how metal exposure and the body’s processing of metals interact with genetics and other biological factors to influence cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease risk,” he said.

The Framingham Heart Study began in 1948, when researchers recruited 5,209 men and women ages 30 to 62 from Framingham, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Participants return every two to six years for physical exams and lab tests, and the study has since enrolled the children and grandchildren of its original volunteers.

Because the study has followed some participants for more than seven decades, Lin’s team can test whether metal levels measured earlier in life connect to brain health in later years.

Lin has drawn on Framingham data in earlier dementia work, including a 2025 UMass Chan study that used regularly updated cognitive measures to predict a person’s Alzheimer’s risk.

Other NIH-funded work has tied metals to brain health. The 2026 NIH Alzheimer’s research progress report described a study in which higher iron levels in the brains of cognitively healthy older adults predicted mild cognitive impairment and faster decline.

An estimated 7.4 million Americans 65 and older live with Alzheimer’s in 2026, and that number could reach 13.8 million by 2060 without medical breakthroughs, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. More than 135,000 Massachusetts residents have the disease, the association reports.

As the population ages, Lin said, the findings “could help guide future efforts to protect brain health and reduce the burden of Alzheimer’s disease.”

Image courtesy of UMass Chan Medical School

U.S. Navy recruit from Webster killed in crash in Florida

Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Recruit Francois Longdayeyambete, a 2026 Bartlett High School graduate from Webster, died early Saturday, Oct. 24, along with two fellow sailors in a fiery single-vehicle crash in Pensacola, Florida.

The U.S. Navy released the names of the three sailors Tuesday, Oct. 27, Navy Times reported. Longdayeyambete enlisted July 9 and served with the Naval Air Technical Training Center at Naval Air Station Pensacola.

His full name was Francois Prince Emmanuel Longdaye Yambete. In Webster, people knew him as Francis Longdaye, according to NBC10 Boston.

The crash also killed Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Apprentice Drekwon Bagley of Michigan and Airman Apprentice David Deanda of California. Bagley trained alongside Longdayeyambete at the technical training center and enlisted May 14. Deanda belonged to Naval Aviation Schools Command, also at the Pensacola base, and enlisted June 4.

Car hit barrier, caught fire

The Pensacola Police Department received a call about the crash around 1:35 a.m. at M Street and Cervantes Street, WEAR News 3 reported. Officers arrived to find the car in flames. After firefighters put out the fire, first responders found the three sailors inside.

Police told WKRG the car was heading east when the driver lost control and struck a barrier. The car then flipped over and caught fire. Police have not said publicly who was driving or what caused the driver to lose control.

Pensacola police are leading the investigation. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is also investigating, which the Navy described as standard practice when a sailor dies outside combat without medical oversight.

Cmdr. David Gardner, a spokesman for Naval Education and Training Command, said in a statement to Stars and Stripes that “the Navy mourns the loss of our shipmates.” He said local Navy chaplains are offering grief counseling to the sailors’ colleagues.

Webster mourns former class president

Webster Superintendent Monique Pierangeli confirmed Longdayeyambete’s death Tuesday.

“Francois was a bright light in our school community,” Pierangeli said in a statement to Boston.com. She described him as a caring young man who lifted the spirits of the people around him and encouraged his classmates.

Bartlett football coach Dane Laboissonniere learned of the death over the weekend after the family reached out to former classmates, who then told school officials.

“Sadly it is true, a very sad day for us all here,” Laboissonniere said in an email to NBC10 Boston.

Family fled civil war

Longdayeyambete’s family fled the Central African Republic during its civil war when he was in third grade, NBC10 Boston reported in a November 2025 profile that named him a “Hometown MVP.” The family moved to Togo, then Philadelphia, before settling in Webster.

At Bartlett, he served as senior class president and played tight end and defensive tackle for the football team. He spoke four languages and was studying two more. He joined the school’s future teachers program and mentored younger students through Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Laboissonniere called him “top tier” in the 2025 profile and praised his commitment to giving back to Webster’s young people.

Longdayeyambete told NBC10 Boston that he saw himself as someone younger children could look up to. He had already enlisted in the Navy during his senior year and said he hoped to become a Navy SEAL.

The Navy has not released additional details about the crash.

Foreground image courtesy of U.S. Navy

Drug maker to lay off 105 workers at Northbridge, Watertown sites

EyePoint, an eye-drug developer with a manufacturing plant in Northbridge, plans to lay off 105 workers at its Northbridge and Watertown sites, according to a notice the company filed with the state.

The state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development received the notice, filed under the name EyePoint US Inc., Tuesday, Oct. 20, and posted it in its weekly WARN layoff report for the week ending Friday, Oct. 23. The layoffs will take place between Dec. 31 and Jan. 31, 2027.

The filing lists the two locations together and gives one combined count for both sites.

Under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, employers must notify the state at least 60 days before a qualifying mass layoff or plant closing.

EyePoint’s board approved the job cuts Saturday, Oct. 17, after reviewing results from the second of two late-stage trials testing the company’s drug Duravyu as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The trial missed its main goal.

The plan eliminates about 53% of the company’s jobs. EyePoint expects most of the layoffs to happen before the end of the year and the rest to wrap up in the first half of 2027, according to the filing. The company estimates it will spend about $9 million on severance and related costs.

“Decisions involving a reduction in our workforce are exceptionally difficult,” said Jay S. Duker, EyePoint’s president and CEO, in a company announcement Monday, Oct. 19.

The company now plans to focus on Duravyu as a potential treatment for diabetic macular edema, a diabetes-related cause of vision loss. Results from two late-stage trials of the drug for that condition should arrive in the fourth quarter of 2027, the company said. EyePoint projects the restructuring will save about $30 million a year and reported about $118 million in cash and short-term investments as of Sept. 30.

The company unveiled plans for the 40,000-square-foot Northbridge plant in January 2023 to manufacture its drugs. In its 2023 announcement, EyePoint said it would receive about $1.9 million in state and local incentives tied to the facility and the local jobs it would create.

The state’s MassHire Rapid Response program works with employers and workers affected by layoffs.

Image credit: @whatlayoff/ Twitter

Contractors seek $5.5M from SMC as Table Talk Square construction stalls

Contractors have filed five lawsuits seeking about $5.5 million over work on three Worcester apartment buildings tied to Watertown-based SMC Management, including the unfinished Residences at Table Talk Square beside Polar Park.

Three of the suits involve the 185-unit Table Talk project, which saw no construction activity at the site during visits over the past two weeks, most recently Monday, Oct. 26, according to the Worcester Business Journal, which first reported the lawsuits.

Kevin McRoy, a Fall River attorney representing SMC, told the business journal the parties had resolved the litigation involving SMC’s Residences on Madison and are working in good faith to settle the remaining disputes. He did not say when construction at Table Talk Square would resume.

All five cases remained open in court records as of Monday.

Three claims at Table Talk Square

Contractors say they are owed about $1.35 million for work at Table Talk Square:

• Feeney Brothers Services of Dorchester says the SMC project owner still owes it $608,031 under its contract.
• McCarthy Concrete of Connecticut seeks $628,876 for concrete work it performed as a subcontractor to general contractor Bozzuto Contracting Co.
• Middlesex Glass Co. of Tewksbury says Bozzuto owes it $112,463 for storefront and mirror work.

All three seek to enforce mechanics liens on the property. Massachusetts’ mechanics lien law lets unpaid contractors record a lien against property they improved and ask a court to order a sale to cover the debt.

In its September suit, Middlesex Glass said Maryland-based Bozzuto suspended work at the site over payment problems with SMC, and SMC then terminated Bozzuto’s contract.

Disputes at Madison Street and Poet Hill

Bozzuto filed the largest claim in August, alleging SMC owes it about $3.1 million for building the 102-unit Residences on Madison at 5 Madison St. The suit names SMC founder Stephen Chapman and related companies and accuses them of diverting more than $3 million in construction-loan money meant for Bozzuto and its subcontractors to investors or other uses.

Bozzuto also alleged that SMC’s three Worcester projects carried more than $10 million in unpaid obligations when it filed the complaint, including at least $5 million at Table Talk Square.

SMC denied the misconduct claims in a September court filing. The developer described the case as a nonpayment dispute that belongs in mediation and arbitration and argued that the Madison property provides enough security to cover Bozzuto’s lien.

Callahan Inc., a Bridgewater-based construction manager, sued SMC’s Poet Hill project owner Thursday, Oct. 22, seeking about $1.06 million for work on the 210-unit Poet Hill Residences on Hemans Street. Callahan first claimed about $2.15 million but acknowledged receiving nearly $1.1 million in additional payments around October.

Callahan announced in June that it had completed the building. Callahan seeks payment, interest and enforcement of a lien against the Poet Hill property.

Ballpark district stakes

Table Talk Square sits inside the Polar Park district improvement financing area, where property taxes and other revenue from new development help the city pay debt on the publicly financed ballpark.

The district already runs behind projections. In a memo to the City Council in October 2025, Chief Financial Officer Timothy McGourthy reported the fund collected $929,000 less than expected in fiscal 2025, bringing the amount owed to the city’s general fund to $1.7 million. He blamed delayed private development, high construction costs and interest rates that slowed financing.

City Auditor Robert Stearns projected an additional $390,000 shortfall for fiscal 2026. The city covers each year’s gap from its general fund, with the expectation that the district will repay it later.

In a March update, City Manager Eric Batista listed SMC’s building among the Table Talk redevelopment projects holding Planning Board approval, part of 349 approved units from SMC and Rossi Development on the former pie factory property.

SMC announced plans for a five-story, wood-frame apartment building over a two-level podium with 233 parking spaces after buying the parcel at Ash and Washington streets for $5.25 million in June 2025. The site had earlier been slated for a 375-unit project that stalled when that developer’s partner withdrew.

Image render courtesy of Bozzuto

5 Worcester County districts land state grants for phone-free schools

Five Worcester County school districts are among 17 statewide that will split more than $625,000 in grants from Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell to keep student cellphones away for the full school day.

Douglas, Fitchburg, Harvard, Leominster and North Brookfield public schools appear on the list of recipients the attorney general’s office released Tuesday, Oct. 27. The office did not publish individual award amounts. Grants scale with student enrollment and top out at $50,000 per district.

“Young people are facing a mental health crisis driven in large part by the constant use of their cellphones and social media,” Campbell said. “During the school day, kids deserve to be able to set those distractions aside and focus on learning and building relationships with their peers.”

She said schools across the state have told her office that phone-free policies improved student focus and connection.

How districts can spend the money

Campbell launched the Phone-Free Schools Support Grant in May with $500,000 available. Public school districts, charter schools and educational collaboratives had until June 5 to apply. Grant periods began Sept. 1 and can last up to two years.

The office judged applications on each district’s proposed bell-to-bell policy and how closely it followed the recommendations in the office’s cellphone and social media toolkit for schools, among other criteria.

Districts can use the money for:

• Lockable phone storage and technology that limits device access during the school day
• Training for teachers, staff and administrators
• Outreach to students, families and the wider school community
• Data collection to measure effects on school climate, student engagement and device use
• Translation and accessibility services

The attorney general’s Grants Unit runs the program with Liza Hirsch, director of the office’s Children’s Justice Unit.

“With phones away, we’re seeing scholars look up, lean in, and connect,” said Northampton Public Schools Superintendent Anna Azarloza, whose district also received a grant.

All 17 grant recipients

• Amesbury Public Schools
• Cape Cod Regional Technical High School
• Dartmouth Public Schools
• Douglas Public Schools
• East Longmeadow Public Schools
• Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School District
• Fitchburg Public Schools
• Harvard Public Schools
• Lenox Public Schools
• Leominster Public Schools
• New Bedford Public Schools
• North Brookfield Public Schools
• Northampton Public Schools
• Pentucket Regional School District
• Quincy Public Schools
• Sharon Public Schools
• Whitman-Hanson Regional School District

Statewide ban sits in conference committee

The grants arrive while lawmakers have yet to settle on a statewide ban. The Senate voted 38-2 on July 31, 2025, to pass a bill requiring every public school district to adopt a bell-to-bell cellphone policy.

The House approved its own version 129-25 on April 8. The House bill keeps the school cellphone ban and adds limits on youth social media, barring children under 14 from the platforms and requiring parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds.

The Senate rejected the House changes May 7 and named negotiators to a conference committee. The House named its negotiators May 20. The bill’s legislative record shows no action since then.

Campbell introduced the STUDY Act, her own proposal for a statewide bell-to-bell ban, in January 2025. In August, she joined other attorneys general in a $17.1 billion multi-state settlement with Meta that requires design changes to protect young users and provides Massachusetts with up to $516 million. Her office also continues a lawsuit against TikTok alleging the company designed its platform to be addictive to young users.

Harte’s Home in Auburn closing, auctioning showroom furniture Thursday

Harte’s Home Furniture and Mattress Store, the Auburn shop that former Rotmans employees opened in 2023, is closing, and its showroom inventory goes up for auction online Thursday, Oct. 29.

The store at 771 Washington St. on Route 20 announced the closing in a statement on its website.

“Our building has been sold and we will be closing very quickly,” the statement said. The store described the new owner as a company that runs its own furniture store.

Harte’s Home said it will fill all existing orders and make deliveries on their scheduled dates. A store employee told TheStreet that Tuesday, Oct. 27, would be the last day of operation.

How the auction works

Holbrook-based Paul E. Saperstein Co. will run the online-only sale, which starts at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, according to the auctioneer’s listing. Bidders can view the catalog and register on BidSpotter.

The listing includes living room sets, sofas, recliners, dining and bedroom furniture, chandeliers, lamps, rugs, decor and store fixtures. Everything sells as is, and the auctioneer describes the items as showroom displays.

Shoppers can inspect items at the store Wednesday, Oct. 28, from noon to 6 p.m.

Buyers must remove their own purchases during these pickup hours:

• Friday, Oct. 30, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 31, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Monday, Nov. 2, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The auctioneer may resell items that buyers do not collect or arrange to collect within 24 hours of those windows. BidSpotter lists independent movers for hire.

Purchases carry an 18% buyer’s premium, which drops 3 percentage points for cash or bank check payments. The 6.25% Massachusetts sales tax applies to the total, premium included. Buyers who pay by credit card do so at the store and must show ID.

A Rotmans successor

Heidi Richardson, the store’s president, led a group of former Rotmans staff that opened Harte’s Home in late 2023, Furniture Today reported at the time. Rotmans, which Murray and Ida Rotman founded in Worcester in 1956, had closed before Harte’s Home opened.

In its closing statement, Harte’s Home thanked customers, “whether old friends from Rotmans or the new friends we made here in Auburn.”

Image credit: Google

Wrong-way detection flags 215+ drivers on Mass. highways since June

Wrong-way detection systems that MassDOT began installing in June have spotted more than 215 drivers entering highways the wrong way, and about 140 of them corrected course, state officials said Monday, Oct. 26.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has installed 86 detection systems and deployed 12 portable detection and warning trailers under the state’s $75 million wrong-way driving prevention initiative. Crews have also upgraded signs and pavement markings at 85% of highway ramps statewide.

The Healey-Driscoll administration and the Legislature funded the program, which now targets more than 800 high-risk locations. Officials cited more than 500 locations when Gov. Maura Healey launched the effort June 17.

“Wrong-way driving crashes can have devastating consequences for families, and we’re doing everything we can to take action to prevent these tragedies before they happen,” Healey said.

How the systems work

MassDOT crews retrofitted existing signalized intersections and highway camera systems with the new technology. When a vehicle moves the wrong way on an off-ramp, the system sends real-time alerts to transportation officials and police. Illuminated signs with flashing lights warn the driver at the same time.

A MassDOT deployment map dated Monday, Oct. 19, shows a cluster of fully operational systems in and around Worcester. The map also marks candidate sites across Worcester County.

“This system will position Massachusetts as a nationwide leader in wrong way prevention and detection and will help keep our roads safe for everyone,” said Phillip Eng, interim transportation secretary and MBTA general manager.

More systems on the way

MassDOT expects to bring about 40 more detection systems online by the end of 2026 and aims to have 300 running by the end of 2027. The agency also plans to test new detection tools at ramps without traffic signals and use the data it collects to plan ramp redesigns where drivers often get confused.

State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble pointed to the death of Trooper Kevin Trainor, who died this year while trying to stop a wrong-way driver.

“Our Troopers frequently respond to these dangerous situations, putting their lives at risk to ensure public safety,” Noble said.

A persistent danger

Wrong-way crashes have killed 51 people in 37 fatal crashes on Massachusetts roads since 2021, according to MassDOT’s wrong-way driving program data. The state recorded at least 40 wrong-way crashes in each of the last five years, with a peak of 52 in 2024.

Most of those crashes happen between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m., and MassDOT estimates roughly 80% of wrong-way drivers were impaired. The agency also warns drivers against relying on GPS alone, citing several incidents tied to drivers misreading GPS directions or to a lag between a GPS prompt and the correct turn.

MassDOT advises drivers who realize they are headed the wrong way to pull over immediately and turn around only when it is safe. Drivers can call 911 if they need police help turning around. Anyone who spots a wrong-way driver should also pull over and call 911.