Colorado officials urge citizens to drive safely amid 20-year high in traffic fatalities

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Officials from the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Colorado State Patrol, and Colorado Springs Police met virtually Tuesday and urged all Coloradans to exercise personal responsibility to decrease rising traffic crash deaths.

Across the state, 672 people died in Colorado from traffic crashes. It's an eight percent increase from the previous year, but it's also a 50 percent increase in traffic-related deaths since 2011. It's the most amount of people who've died in a single year since 2002 from traffic crashes.

Data shows that El Paso County had the highest number of traffic deaths of all counties in Colorado, with 77 people dying in 2021. Here's the breakdown of the deadliest traffic crash counties in the state:

• El Paso = 77
• Adams = 66
• Denver = 65    
• Jefferson = 50
• Arapahoe = 50
• Weld = 46