Report: CT Ranks No. 5 For ‘Most Dangerous Roads During COVID-19'

ACROSS CONNECTICUT — Traffic fatalities increased in Connecticut last year, even though people drove less due to the coronavirus pandemic, a new study finds.

The report by the National Highway Safety Administration and QuoteWizard found that Connecticut experienced a 22 percent increase in traffic fatalities in 2020, putting the state near the top of the list — No. 5 to be exact — for states that saw the biggest jump in highway deaths.

The only other states to rank worse than Connecticut were South Dakota at No. 1, Vermont at No. 2, Arkansas at No. 3 and Rhode Island at No. 4.

In 2019, Connecticut reported 254 traffic fatalities, according to the report. The following year the number of traffic fatalities increased by 56, bringing the total number to 310 in 2020. Speeding played a big role in many of those fatalities.

In fact, the study found that speeding-related deaths began increasing in March, right as the first lockdowns were put in place and traffic volume started to decline. Drivers under the age of 34 had the largest increase in traffic fatalities. And single-vehicle crashes on urban highways increased by 9 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

The increased number of speeding-related deaths is even more telling when broken down by region, according to the study. It found that states in the northeast and south had the largest increases in speeding-related deaths, while the western half of the country saw declines of between 3 percent and 11 percent.

The National Safety Council estimates that 42,060 people died on America’s roadways in 2020. Despite their being a pandemic, Connecticut and almost every other state in the country experienced a rise in the number of traffic fatalities. The question is, "Why?" According to the study, the reasons vary for every crash, but the data points to young drivers simply going too fast on less-congested roadways.

The good news is that analysists behind the study believe that the increase in traffic deaths is only temporary. When they looked at the second half of 2020, the number of fatal crashes decreased or remained at 2019 levels for the same month.