Limiting flashing yellow turn signals at more Clark County intersections is on the 2026 agenda for the Office of Traffic Safety.
In 2024, Clark County restricted yellow flashing turn signals during peak hours at intersections on roads with speed limits of 45 mph or greater within its jurisdiction. Flashing yellow lights have proven dangerous, leading to vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrians crashes, according to Clark County Commission chair Michael Naft.
“I continue to believe from a policy it’s the right thing to do to figure out if we are continuing to expand the way they’re limited, or do we look at pausing them at certain intersections in totality,” said Naft, who established the Office of Traffic Safety in 2022. “But I think the data clearly proves that they are more dangerous than any benefit they could possibly offer.”
County Office of Traffic Safety Director Andrew Bennett, said he was having meetings with the Metropolitan Police Department this month to discuss traffic safety, and flashing yellow signals was to be one of the topics discussed. With Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill’s continued push at making traffic safety a priority, Bennett is confident some movement on the flashing yellow turn signal front will be seen this year.
“A group that Metro has convened to look at various factors after each fatal and ensuring that we have the right data and the knowledge and then also the backing to ensure that we can make those changes,” Bennett said. “I think that with the inclusion of law enforcement in that conversation, I would expect that we see further development this year on that.”
Engineering
With Las Vegas being a commuter town, many roads have been built to cater to vehicles and not vulnerable road users.
The county is taking a stronger stance on its detached sidewalk ordinance, which requires a buffer, usually landscaping, between the road and the start of the sidewalk.
In the past, the county would routinely waive that ordinance, but that is no longer the case, according to Naft.
“When I first made that law, it was waived periodically,” Naft said. “It is really rare that it is ever waived, and that’s a credit to the commissioners here who are holding developers accountable, and frankly, holding ourselves accountable, too. When we’re doing work, we now are following the same process.”
Another aspect of road engineering is finding ways to reduce speeding. Speeding and impairment continue to be the leading cause of fatal wrecks in the Las Vegas Valley.
“We look one by one now as roads are being designed and redesigned and how we can make sure that we’re designing roads that don’t lead to speeding,” Naft said.
Complete streets
The push to add more complete streets is also on the ongoing mission of the traffic safety office.
One project that is underway in the southeast valley is on Starr Avenue between Bermuda and Las Vegas Boulevard, where extra layers of buffers are being added to protect all users of the road. Naft called it the best example of a complete street that is being built to cater to all road users, with safety top of mind.
The stretch of Starr includes areas of commercial, residential and schools, running between the bustling area in West Henderson to near Southern Highlands.
“It’s going to go median, multi-use path, landscaping strip, sidewalk, landscape and then whatever development (is adjacent to the road),” Bennett said.
It will be the second road with a protected bike lane in the county, which is the only jurisdiction in Southern Nevada that has such a feature on a road, Bennett said.
“It’s going to be a protected, and that’s what’s unique because the county is the only jurisdiction that has built a protected bike lane and that’s the one on Hollywood that runs north to south,” Bennett said of the road in the east Las Vegas Valley. “This is going to add an additional protected buffered bike lane or multi-use path rather and then also continue to provide the sidewalk as well.”
Keep fatal crashes dropping
Fatal crashes fell by 19 percent in 2025, compared with 2024, with 239 traffic deaths compared with 296 the prior year.
The positive trend has continued through the first two months of the year, as fatal crashes are down in the county by 25 percent. Through February, there had been 36 traffic deaths, compared with 49 through the first two months of 2025.
The buy-ins by all agencies in Southern Nevada, including law enforcement, first responders, civic leaders, public works and the school district have helped drive the dip in fatal crashes, Naft said.
“Think it’s the buy-in that we’ve been able to generate from all these partners that has been a contributing factor,” Naft said. “I think there’s a whole lot of reasons, as you know, but I don’t know that it’s yet a trend. But we want to continue to get to zero fatalities. But having this buy-in from all the all the stakeholders, making everyone realize whether it’s obvious to them or not that they have a role to play in traffic safety has been really significant.”
Bennett agreed that bringing back the Southern Nevada Traffic Task Force has been a great thing for road safety.
Street takeovers
The Office of Traffic Safety was looking to curtail street takeovers in Southern Nevada, where large groups of people would essentially block entire intersections offs, doing donuts and other dangerous stunts that puts all in attendance in danger.
Recent legislation passed allows law enforcement to ticket, tow and keep vehicles on hold of those who take part in takeovers, has played a factor in less of those types of incidents occurring, Bennett said.
“So again, providing those opportunities to law enforcement, to the DMV, to ensure that those vehicles don’t get back on the roadway, I think has been key,” Bennett said.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.
