The Louisiana Highway Safety Commission says highway deaths declined in 2023 by 10.5-percent to 811. Spokesperson Greg Fischer says this decline in fatalities marks a positive shift following a surge in deadly crashes during the Covid pandemic…
“We don’t want to be too optimistic because you know frankly, we still had 811 deaths due to car crashes on our roads in Louisiana in 2023.”
Pedestrian fatalities that hit alarming rates during the pandemic, were down to 147 in 2023, nearly a 20-perdent decrease, and bicycle fatalities dropped from 44 to 35 and crashes involving a driver with a blood-alcohol level of .08 or higher decreased to 195, a 13.3-percent drop from 2022. Fischer, however, says there was an increase in motorcycle fatalities….
“We lost 98 people on a motorcycle. That was up from 90 the previous year. We changed the way we recorded this data recently, to include three wheeled motorcycles, autocycles, mopeds, and e-bikes.”
Fischer says the seatbelt usage rate is the highest ever recorded in Louisiana at over 88-percent, a three-percent increase from the previous year…
“Everyone was wearing their seatbelts more. That’s truck drivers, SUV drivers, car drivers. So across the board we saw an improvement of people wearing their seatbelts.”
Overall, the decline in highway deaths offers hope Louisiana’s roads are becoming safer, but it serves as a reminder of the ongoing need for responsible driving.
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