Looking at the traffic safety performance in Connecticut from 2005 to 2014 can show you a number of things about how the state has changed. First, you can see that the number of total traffic fatalities has dropped over that decade, with fatalities dropping from 278 to 248 by 2014. Interestingly, the rural fatalities have risen from 50 to 60 in that time frame, but the number of fatalities in urban environments has dropped from 228 to 188.
An interesting fact about drunk driving in Connecticut is that the number of fatalities hasn’t dropped as much as held steady. In 2005, 98 people died in these accidents, while in 2014, 97 people died in these accidents. The number of deaths varied between the years but typically ranged between 94 and 126 fatalities each year between 2005 and 2014.
One area that could be an issue is the pedestrian fatality count. While efforts are made to reduce pedestrian fatalities overall, there were only 34 fatalities in 2005 compared to 47 in 2014. Bicyclists are also still at a high risk, with numbers climbing from 3 fatalities in 2005 to 8 in 2011. By 2014, the number of bicyclist fatalities had again dropped to 3, but it shows that there is a large variance in the numbers and that improvements could be made for safety.
Looking at national numbers, Connecticut had 248 fatalities in 2014 caused by traffic accidents. The U.S. as a whole had 32,675. When looking at the total fatalities per 100,000, Connecticut had 6.9, while the United States had 10.25.
Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Traffic Safety Performance (Core Outcome) Measures* For Connecticut,” accessed April 07, 2016
