Scanning the headlines this morning, the number of serious and fatal crashes on Connecticut roads seemed considerably higher than what we usually see. Between 2003 and 2013, Connecticut saw less than one (.77) traffic fatality per day on average. This past weekend, however, we found at least five traffic deaths that took place between Saturday and Sunday:
HARTFORD — “One man is dead and three people are injured after a two-car crash on Barbour Street early Saturday morning.”
ORANGE — “Police responded to a fatal crash Saturday morning in Orange on Grassy Hill Road near Prudden Lane.”
MERIDEN — “Police have identified a 19-year-old male who died while trapped in a car that crashed into several trees in a Meriden cemetery overnight.”
WINDHAM — “State Police say a Windham woman has died after her car crashed and she was thrown from the vehicle.”
CHESHIRE — “A Wolcott woman has died after a crash on Knotter Drive in Cheshire on Sunday morning.”
This spate of fatalities comes on the heels of a pedestrian death that took place last week on East Main Street in Meriden, where there is a 25 mph city-wide speed limit. This particular incident caught our attention because it was reported that the driver was injured by his shattered windshield. The crash remains under investigation, but we can’t help but wonder if the pedestrian would still be alive — or if the driver’s windshield would still be intact — if he was traveling at or below 25 miles per hour.
There were even more serious, non-fatal crashes reported between late Friday night and early Monday morning in Bridgeport, Wethersfield, Norwich, Trumbull, Southbury, Greenwich and Darien. Police are also investigating a Monday morning crash in East Haven in which a driver struck two pedestrians.
Connecticut was one of only 15 states that saw a decrease in traffic fatalities in the first half of 2015, according to Connecticut by the Numbers:
From January through June of this year, there were 95 motor vehicle deaths in Connecticut, compared with 119 during the same period in 2014 and 116 during the first six months of 2013. Connecticut’s percentage drop in the number of traffic deaths was the 5th largest in the nation, comparing the first six months of this year to a year ago.
Let’s hope this recent carnage — especially with the predicted uptick in holiday travel — isn’t enough to reverse that trend.
