The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) saw a decrease in roadway deaths for roughly two-decades, with a rise during the Covid pandemic. According to Mark Wagner, assistant state traffic safety engineer with MnDOT, those deaths may be trending downward.
Wagner said those deaths are concerning and his team, along with MnDOT, are working to make roads safer.
"It's really sad to see the loss of life and the life-changing injuries that increased during the pandemic," Wagner said. "But at the same time, looking back 20 years when Toward Zero Deaths started, that was a hard time too, and we found a way to make it work."
Towards Zero Deaths is a state traffic safety program that began in 2003. Since then, Minnesota has seen a 33% decrease in traffic-related fatalities.
In 2020, Minnesota saw 394 deaths, compared to 364 deaths in 2019. In 2021, those numbers increased to 488 fatalities. A small decrease was seen in 2022, as there were a reported 446 fatalities.
According to Wagner, 2023 is looking better than last year.
"I don't know that this is a new normal that we can expect but I think it's too early to tell," Wagner said. "The evidence so far is pretty good that we're returning to the baseline we saw pre-pandemic, but I wouldn't make any definitive statements at this point."
Olmsted County has bucked the statewide and national trend of pandemic roadway fatalities, with the county reporting 16 deaths in 2019, 13 in 2020, and 6 in 2021, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The Twin Cities metro area usually has the most fatalities in the state with the southeast region being one of the safer areas for motorists, according to Wagner.
"We're still in the stage where we can get a lot of good safety treatments for not as much money," Wagner said. "But things like roundabouts and J-turns are getting more expensive."
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Source: PostBulletin.com
