Stonington ― On Tuesday, state Rep. Greg Howard, R-Stonington, expressed frustration after the House of Representatives defeated his proposed amendment to study fatalities on state roadways in a primarily party line vote.

“Bodies are piling up on our highways every single day,” said Howard, a veteran Stonington police detective, adding that finding solutions is vital.

The amendment to the Senate Department of Motor Vehicles omnibus bill would have created a task force to research and identify factors contributing to a rise in traffic accident-related injuries and fatalities and a decrease in traffic enforcement.

The task force would have looked at issues such as the impact of state laws regarding suspension and reinstatement of driver’s licenses, decreased enforcement, morale levels among state police officers, the public perception of police officers, and recent changes to state laws.

Howard argued that identifying the underlying issues and involving stakeholders with diverse opinions and ideas are paramount to solving the problem.

The amendment proposed involving representatives of rank-and-file law enforcement, Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and Department of State Police command staff, the Racial Profiling Prohibition Project Advisory Board and the American Civil Liberties Union, among others.

The House passed the bill on Monday after rejecting the amendment.

Locally, Deputy Majority Leader Rep. Christine Conley, D- Groton, Rep. Aundré Bumgardner, D-Groton, and Rep. Anthony Nolan, D-New London, voted against the amendment.

Nolan, a retired New London police officer, did not reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Bumgardner and Conley said they were committed to traffic safety, and that their votes against the amendment primarily were about time.

“It is certainly nothing personal with my Stonington colleague, but just a matter of difference of opinions on the specifics of how to best address the issue,” Bumgardner said.

Bumgardner noted that with the end of the session looming, there was a chance that the amended bill would not have enough time to be passed for a second time by the Senate before the session ended at midnight on Wednesday.

Howard pushed back on their argument about time constraints, noting that the Senate was amending another bill on Tuesday that would still need to be passed by the House before the close of the session.

“It happens all the time,” he said. “They said if we voted for that it would have killed the bill. No it wouldn’t. We had three days left, and it’s a non-controversial issue,” he added.

Bumgardner said that the issues Howard raised should be addressed, but noted the state already has a standing council under the Department of Transportation that focuses on the same issues.

“The Vision Zero Council already exists for that very reason, to tackle those issues. We don’t want to create conflicting working groups with a body that is deliberately working on these issues right now,” Bumgardner said.

According to the Department of Transportation website, the Vision Zero Council, established as part of a transportation safety bill in 2021, is tasked with “developing statewide policy to eliminate transportation-related fatalities and severe injuries involving pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, motorists and passengers.”

The council, however, is comprised solely of state employees and has far less law enforcement and community stakeholder representation, and its mandated focus is not as extensive as that of Howard’s proposed task force.

Bumgardner also pointed to pieces of the amendment such as its focus on police officer morale that he felt were warranted, but more appropriately placed under the purview of a different body such as the legislature’s Public Safety Committee.

“I don’t think that is necessarily germane to the scope of DMV. (Howard) is ranking member of Public Safety and it’s more appropriate to address it through his committee and the great bipartisan work he does with the chair of the Public Safety Committee,” Bumgardner said.

He and Conley noted that the Public Safety Committee could create a working group without the need for legislation.

“What is it going to take for my colleagues to say, ‘we need to do something different because what we’ve been doing over the last four years isn’t working,’” Howard asked.

He added that despite his frustration, he would continue to advocate for his fellow law enforcement officers, increased enforcement, and other solutions that would reduce fatal accidents.