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HARTFORD, Conn. Driving deaths in Connecticut, which jumped by a whopping 42 percent in 2010 more than anywhere else in the country plummeted in 2011, when there were likely fewer fatal crashes than ever before in the state.
Connecticut traffic officials say they cant explain the dramatic disparity between the two years, but will continue trying to analyze the whacky statistical ups and downs.
While there were 295 fatal crashes that killed 316 people in 2010, the numbers dropped to 194 fatal accidents with 204 deaths through November, 2011, according to officials in the states Department of Transportation.
We very likely had fewer traffic deaths this past year (2011) than any year since weve been keeping track of accidents and fatality numbers, said state Department of Transportation spokesman Kevin Nursick. While we had a big jump in traffic deaths in 2010, we have been consistently trending downward for years.
Nursick pointed out that in 1989, there were 378 fatal accidents resulting in 405 deaths about twice the number of fatalities in 2011.
And despite the economic downturn and high unemployment rate, plenty of people are still commuting to and from work in Fairfield County, making the steep decline in traffic deaths in 2011 even more puzzling, officials said.
The New York/Connecticut/New Jersey tristate area, in fact, ranks as the fifth most traffic congested metropolis in the country, according to a recent national report by the 2011 Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University.
Nursick said he cant entirely explain it, but while the total 2011 numbers wont be official for a few weeks, he expects that even when Decembers fatalities are added, it appears that a record low number of traffic deaths for a one-year period are likely. He said the numbers in 2011 were closer to 2009 when there were 214 fatal accidents and 227 fatalities.
In small states like Connecticut, all it takes are a few major accidents with multiple deaths to greatly impact the percentage of traffic-related deaths compared to other years, Nursick said. We do anticipate that traffic deaths will continue to decline, as they have nationwide, as a result of several factors.
Those factors include safer cars, driver safety programs that educate people about distracted driving (such as use of cellphones and texting) and better police enforcement, according to the DOT, and state Department of Motor Vehicles.
As a result, road fatalities dropped 2.9 percent nationally last year.
But 19 states showed increases, with the biggest percentage jump in Connecticut, where 42 percent more people were killed in traffic crashes than the year before, according to data released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
While that is factually accurate, it is very misleading and we believe more of a statistical anomaly - especially when you exclude 2010 you see a continual downward trend of traffic fatalities over the past 30 years in Connecticut, said Nursick.
Nursick said in addition to safer cars with multiple airbags and structural safety improvements, there are several other reasons be believes traffic deaths are declining
There are more people working at home and carpooling when they do drive to the office, Nursick said. The economy has also had an impact, as fewer people have been working in recent years and are not on the highways at peak hours.
Nursick said the state will continue trying to analyze the unpredictable year-to-year changes.
We want to know whats going on as much as everyone else, he said. And were going to keep trying to figure it out.
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