If you drive regularly in Connecticut, you have no doubt seen your share of dangerous driving maneuvers. It can leave you amazed that some people manage to make it from one place to another without causing an accident when you see how they drive. Even if you do not witness accidents caused by speeding, drunk, distracted or otherwise reckless drivers, that does not mean that serious crashes are not happening.
According to data from the National Highway Safety Administration, the state of Connecticut has seen an alarming jump in the number of people killed in traffic accidents for two consecutive years. In 2014, there were 248 vehicular fatalities in the state. The following year that rose to 270. Then in 2016, a total of 293 people lost their lives in automobile wrecks. These increases followed one year of declining deaths when 286 fatalities were recorded in 2013. But even that year represented an increase over the 264 deaths in 2012.
The factors in these deadly collisions run the gamut and some crashes may be influenced by multiple things. In the five years spanning 2012 to 2016, 526 people perished at the hands of drunk drivers and another 365 died in crashes in which speed was a factor. Among motorcyclists and pedestrians, 267 and 227 fatalities were recorded, respectively. Large trucks were involved in the death of 124 people in that same timeframe.
This information is not intended to provide legal advice but is instead meant to give Connecticut residents an idea of how many people continue to die in motor vehicle accidents around the state, despite improving safety technology in automobiles.