by Hugh McQuaid CTNewsJunkie
While traffic-related fatalities have declined from the especially deadly year of 2022, preliminary statistics released Wednesday by the Department of Transportation suggest that at least 316 people died on Connecticut roadways last year.
That figure represents the number of auto-related deaths through Dec. 25 and is almost certain to go up when the agency factors in statistics from the final week of last year. Still, it’s an improvement over the grim high of 360 deaths as of Dec. 25 in 2022.
State transportation officials, who have watched roadway fatalities climb from a recent low of 248 in 2019 — the year before the pandemic struck, were reluctant to hail last year’s preliminary data as a victory
“It’s not as bad as 2022, but it’s kind of hard to beat that year. It was the deadliest year in three decades or more in Connecticut,” Josh Morgan, communications director for the Transportation Department, said Wednesday. “It’s still too many. It’s still too much.”
The agency attributes the deaths to negligent driver behavior. Morgan pointed to flagrant speeding, distracted driving, and operating under the influence.
“These are all behaviors that people are choosing to do,” he said. “They’re making that decision and it’s making our roadways unsafe for everybody.”
Vehicle drivers and passengers accounted for most of the people killed in car crashes last year. Of the 316 deaths, 200 were inside a vehicle, according to the draft statistics. That’s down from 220 in the preceding year.
Motorcyclists made up the next largest group with 62 deaths, a slight decline from 2022 when 66 motorcyclists died in crashes. Meanwhile, the number of bicyclists killed on roadways ticked up from four in 2022 to five in 2023, according to the DOT data.
The statistics through Dec. 25 showed a substantial decline in the number of pedestrians killed by vehicles, which dropped from a high of 70 in 2022 to 49 last year — the lowest number recorded since at least 2018.
In an interview Thursday, Sen. Christine Cohen, a Guilford Democrat who co-chairs the legislature’s Transportation Committee, said the preliminary statistics suggest that some of the traffic safety policies passed by lawmakers in recent years were starting to have an impact.
“There’s a tremendous number of new laws that have taken effect that we anticipate will help to continue to drive down these numbers,” she said.
For instance, Cohen referenced the wrong-way driving deterrent systems, which the legislature voted to expand to a larger number of highway exit ramps following the death or Rep. Quentin ‘Q’ Williams in a wrong-way driving crash last January. In the last couple weeks, the new flashing-light systems had already notified state police of a driver attempting to enter a highway traveling in the wrong direction, she said.
Other recent policies include newly enacted drivers’ education requirements, which include warnings of the dangers of driving while using cannabis, and new criteria for the DOT’s “Complete Streets” program, aimed at ensuring that new roadway projects are designed with the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists in mind.
Meanwhile, after years of rejecting the concept, Connecticut policymakers are increasingly embracing automated traffic enforcement systems.
Speed enforcement cameras mounted to an SUV outside DOT headquarters in Newington Credit: Hugh McQuaid / CTNewsJunkie
Earlier this week, the Transportation Department released guidance for municipalities wishing to opt into a program allowing the limited use of automated cameras designed to enforce speed limits and deter drivers from running red lights. That program was included in a package of roadway safety policies recommended by the multiagency Vision Zero Council and passed by lawmakers last year.
At the end of December, the DOT also wrapped up a pilot program, which tested the use of speed enforcement cameras in construction zones along Connecticut highways.
Over the course of around eight months, the cameras clocked 541,920 vehicles speeding through work zones, sent warnings to 24,875 drivers who traveled at least 15 mph over the speed limit, and issued citations — between $75 and $175 — to 724 drivers who were recorded speeding through a construction zone a second time after receiving a warning, the DOT reported Wednesday.
Morgan said the agency was still combing through the data and expected to make a report to the governor and legislature in the coming weeks. But from a high level, he said the cameras seemed to have a positive impact and expected that the DOT would seek legislative approval for a more permanent program during this year’s session.
“Talking to the people who work these [highway construction] jobs, it’s felt different, it’s felt safer,” Morgan said. “They feel more confident that they’re not going to get hit and killed by a driver, knowing that the speed cameras were active around them and that’s good news.”
However, automated traffic enforcement has historically been opposed by advocacy groups including the Connecticut ACLU, which has voiced concerns about police surveillance, privacy and due process. The group’s executive director, David McGuire, reiterated those reservations in a statement Wednesday.
“Red light cameras result in increasing police surveillance, while ignoring real solutions and people’s actual safety needs,” McGuire said. “We need to invest in walkable cities, not more policing. The ACLU-CT is opposed to the use of speed and red light cameras because of the significant due process, privacy, and racial justice threats these cameras pose. We will be closely monitoring the rollout of the new cameras and policies in the state.”
Still, a DOT request to expand the program will likely find a receptive audience in the legislature’s Transportation Committee. Cohen said automated enforcement seemed to consistently result in drivers becoming more aware of their speeds and reducing them when appropriate.
The panel is also likely to reconsider legislation raised but ultimately tabled last year, which would have lowered Connecticut’s blood alcohol threshold for drunken driving from .08 to .05, Cohen said.
In the meantime, she said policymakers would give the already adopted tools a chance to work and hopefully continue to curb traffic-related deaths.
“I think we’re going to continue to see that number decline,” Cohen said. “It’s disheartening and really sad when you think about those numbers as lives. These are actual people that are dying and I feel a sense of urgency and responsibility as a legislature to modify and correct that until that number is zero.”