Colorado reversed a decade-long surge in site visitors fatalities with 716 deaths recorded in 2023, a lower of 6% in contrast with the record-setting 764 fatalities in 2022.
However Colorado Division of Transportation knowledge displays a continued shift towards what authorities describe as high-speed reckless driving and elevated roadway fatalities involving pedestrians and bicyclists.
Practically a 3rd of 2023’s site visitors fatalities — 31.2% — concerned drivers who have been impaired attributable to alcohol or hashish, CDOT knowledge exhibits. The newest estimates for “distracted driving” deaths hadn’t been accomplished however drivers gazing at smartphones and automobile touchscreen techniques have performed a job in about 60 deaths a 12 months.
Across the state, drivers crashed with lethal outcomes most frequently in El Paso County, the place authorities recorded 78 deaths, adopted by Denver County (71), Arapahoe County (68), Adams County (62), Weld County (55), Jefferson County (48), Larimer County (44), Pueblo County (40), Boulder County (28) and Douglas County (23).
The full miles traveled on Colorado roads has elevated attributable to inhabitants progress and other people driving extra. Colorado’s site visitors fatality fee — deaths per 100 million miles traveled in automobiles — has elevated quickly since 2011. The speed since 2021 has hovered round 1.3 fatalities per 100 million automobile miles traveled. That’s about half the fatality fee within the Nineteen Eighties when the Colorado inhabitants and automobile miles traveled have been a lot decrease.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that we’ve reached the height and that within the years to return we’ll proceed to see declines,” CDOT spokesman Sam Cole stated on Thursday.
“There’s a nationwide pattern of roadway site visitors fatalities growing. Are individuals simply being extra careless? I don’t know. However a variety of this has to do with the number of roadway customers on the market,” Cole stated. “We see extra individuals strolling, biking, and using e-bikes and scooters. This has lots to do with the deaths on roads. That’s the place the spikes have been the biggest — with these weak roadway customers. ”
Colorado State Patrol, CDOT and Denver officers have been planning to unveil the info Monday and talk about potential new security measures.
The roadway fatalities included a record-high variety of pedestrian deaths — 131, up from the earlier file of 115 in 2022. Bicycling deaths on roads numbered 20, up from 15 in 2022, the identical as in 2019, and down from 22 in 2018, CDOT data present.
Colorado officers plan to proceed security campaigns aimed toward lowering site visitors fatalities. These embrace efforts that target pedestrian and bicycle security in Denver and different city areas. Roadway enhancements, such because the set up of rumble strips and guard rails, have been a part of the campaigns.
“The rise in site visitors fatalities, notably these involving pedestrians, is extremely regarding,” stated Jonathan Hughes, a College of Colorado economist exploring impacts of lethal roadways. “There is a crucial position for brand new state and federal insurance policies as a result of drivers might not totally recognize the dangers they impose on different drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.”
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