972 people were killed in 2021 on Louisiana roads, that’s a 17-percent increase from 2020, that’s according to the LSU Center for Analytics and Research in Transportation. Louisiana Highway Safety Commission Spokesperson Mark Lambert said the numbers are disturbing.
“We believe a lot of it is attributed to aggressive driving, which we’re seeing, we’re part of a national trend that’s going on largely because of COVID,” said Lambert.
The 972 traffic deaths in 2021 are the most since 2007. And 174 of the traffic fatalities occurred on Louisiana interstates, an alarming increase of 49 percent from 2020.
In addition to an uptick in aggressive driving crashes, Lambert said the number of impaired fatal driving crashes increased a disturbing 32 percent.
“Both injuries and fatals and we also saw a lot more incidents of people who were in those wrecks not wearing their seatbelts,” said Lambert.
Lambert said awareness campaigns like “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” and “Click It or Ticket,” were paused during the pandemic and he believes it had an impact on the increase in traffic fatalities.
Another alarming statistic among the 2021 numbers is an all-time high of 185 pedestrian fatalities, that’s an increase of 27 percent from 2020. Lambert said if you are walking along a roadway, even in a neighborhood always walk against traffic not with it.
“If you are walking with the traffic, you are three times more likely to be killed by a vehicle than if you are walking against the traffic,” said Lambert.
The major cause of roadway deaths and injuries in Louisiana are distracted driving, impaired driving, and aggressive driving.
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