Car accidents are a serious problem throughout the United States, and Connecticut’s statistics show that it also suffers from some serious collisions each year. The population of the state is almost 3.6 million, and in 2013, there were 255 fatal crashes within the state borders. Out of those fatal crashes, 276 people were killed, making it 7.7 deaths per 100,000 people in the state.
How does Connecticut compare to other New England States? Delaware, for example, which has a population of just 925,749, had 94 fatal accidents and 99 deaths. Delaware has a higher fatality ratio, with 10.7 deaths per 100,000 people in the population.
Washington, D.C., on the other hand, has a relatively low ratio for deaths per 100,000. The district saw around 3.1 deaths per 100,000 people and is home to 646,449.
Another highly populated state, Massachusetts, has a low death rate in collisions, too. Home to just under 6.7 million people, the state saw 4.9 deaths per 100,000 and 309 fatal crashes. How can a state have more fatal crashes but a lower overall death rate? There may have been more survivors overall, or crashes may have involved more vehicles counted as individual collisions.
If you’ve been in a crash, you know some of the major risks of being on the roads. Texting, talking on the phone, being distracted by pets or passengers or other factors can cause a driver to act negligently and collide with others. If you’ve been struck, it’s your right to seek a claim against the negligent party, so you can recover the costs associated with the collision, missing work, missing school, pain and suffering and more.
Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Highway Loss Data Institute, “General Statistics,” accessed Jan. 08, 2016
