Beyond the Trophy The Real Fight for NM Roads

By Hattie Quinn, News Director,, KCCC 930 AM

On April 27, a heavy haul superload fell over on Hobbs Highway. Oversized industrial tanks, down on the road. The incident, reported by CDLstrong, showed exactly what happens when infrastructure fails: loads shift, securement breaks, roads give way. Recovery requires specialized equipment, traffic control, and a full shutdown.

Precision-balanced, overweight loads need well-maintained level roads. This is what the industry’s impact looks like when you’re not reading a policy paper. This is what it costs when we don’t fund the infrastructure the trucks are destroying — while they employ us, heat us, and supply us.

Two months ago, the Permian Road Safety Coalition received a Public Service Award from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Baltimore — one of fewer than 400 recipients since 1983. It was a moment worth celebrating.

Instead, PRSC President and CEO Michael Smith treated it as a call to action.

Last month, Smith stood before the New Mexico Department of Transportation Commission in Lovington. He didn’t come to accept congratulations. He came with a demand: New Mexico must establish a permanent, dedicated fund for highway infrastructure investment, funded by oil and gas revenues, beyond the $1.5 billion transportation bonding package already signed into law this year.

Why oil and gas revenues specifically? Because that’s who profits from the extraction. And that’s who most damages the roads.

The $1.5 billion bond exists — but it’s backed by driver fee increases: a 35% hike in the weight-distance tax, a 25% increase in vehicle registration fees, and a new surcharge on electric and hybrid vehicles. Drivers and EV owners are paying to repair roads damaged by heavy industrial traffic. Smith’s argument cuts to the point: the industry that profits from extraction should bear the cost of the infrastructure impact — not shift it to everyone’s registration bill.

He had the numbers. A January 2026 report found 56% of New Mexico’s roads are in poor or mediocre condition. Drivers pay an estimated $3.3 billion annually to repair vehicles damaged by those roads. The state faces a $7.5 billion transportation funding shortfall that bonding alone cannot address.

New Mexico’s own data is unambiguous. January through May 2026, NMDOT’s District 2 — covering southeast New Mexico — recorded 50 traffic fatalities, more than any other district in the state and nearly 30% of all New Mexico traffic deaths. District 2 holds about 17% of thestate’s population. Its roads are killing people at nearly twice the rate its population share would predict.

NMDOT District 2 Engineer Timothy Parker said it plainly back in 2019: “(U.S.) 285 is one of the most deadly highways in New Mexico, definitely one of the busiest.” Seven years later, that corridor has no real-time traffic cameras, no incident detection, no coordinated response system. The state mapped the crashes. It documented the danger. It just hasn’t funded the infrastructure to match.

That’s not a funding gap. That’s a choice.

“New Mexico has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to use oil and gas windfall revenues to create a sustainable, enduring highway safety fund.” — Michael Smith, PRSC President & CEO, May 2026

That’s not a nonprofit CEO accepting a trophy. That’s someone who drove the same highways we drive, counted the same crosses on the side of the road, and decided recognition without action is just applause.

There’s one more number worth sitting with. Approximately 30% of fatal crashes in the Permian Basin involve occupants not wearing seatbelts — from PRSC and the Texas Transportation Institute’s analysis across 28 Permian Basin counties. For New Mexico’s District 2, the 2026 preliminary figure is 32% — the highest unbelted fatality rate in the state.

That number doesn’t need a bond package or a commission hearing. It needs a choice by us. One click.

Smith’s demand to the state is valid and necessary. But the coalition didn’t go from celebration to testimony just to ask the state to do better. They came running because people are driving on those roads today.

Here is what we can do: if you work in energy, PRSC welcomes partners at

permianroadsafety.org. If you manage a first responder department, confirm your connection to their equipment pipeline. And if you drive — wear your seatbelt, drive at reasonable speeds, and pay attention. Finally, talk to your councilors and commissioners. Write to your representatives. Let them know what we need.

The coalition’s award is real. Smith’s testimony is real. Both matter. But they’re only half the equation.

Summarized from the KCCC Sunday Low Down news post. Read the full edition — including the infrastructure data, the source appendix, and how to find your local representatives — in the June Sunday Low Down. Visit kccc930am.com and click KCCC Eddy County Dispatch to access our archives.