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 Department of Transportation data 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 had been impaired resulting from alcohol or hashish, CDOT information reveals. The most recent estimates for “distracted driving” deaths hadn’t been accomplished however drivers gazing at smartphones and automobile touchscreen methods have performed a task 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 whole miles traveled on Colorado roads has elevated resulting from inhabitants progress and other people driving extra. Colorado’s site visitors fatality price — 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 price within the Eighties when the Colorado inhabitants and automobile miles traveled had been a lot decrease.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that we’ve reached the height and that within the years to come back we are going to proceed to see declines,” CDOT spokesman Sam Cole stated on Thursday.
“There’s a nationwide development of roadway site visitors fatalities growing. Are individuals simply being extra careless? I don’t know. However a number 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 loads to do with the deaths on roads. That’s the place the spikes have been the most important — with these weak roadway customers. ”
Colorado State Patrol, CDOT and Denver officers had been planning to unveil the info Monday and focus on doable new security measures.
The roadway fatalities included a record-high variety of pedestrian deaths — 131, up from the earlier report 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 geared toward lowering site visitors fatalities. These embody efforts that concentrate on 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, significantly these involving pedestrians, is extremely regarding,” stated Jonathan Hughes, a College of Colorado economist exploring impacts of lethal roadways. “There is a crucial function for brand spanking new state and federal insurance policies as a result of drivers could not totally admire the dangers they impose on different drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.”
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