630 people died on Colorado roads in 2017, CDOT wants to see change in 2018

The Colorado Department of Transportation said the number of traffic-related deaths has increased nearly 30 percent over the past three years.

In total, CDOT reports 630 people died on Colorado roads last year.

“It’s not one intersection, it’s not one curve, it’s not one mountain pass, it’s not one county. It’s everywhere. It’s virtually every roadway,” CDOT Executive Director Michael Lewis said.

Lewis said while there isn’t one problem area, there are common risk factors like speed, distracted or impaired driving and people not wearing seatbelts.

“The number one thing that we can do is making sure people wear seatbelts. This is obviously very simple and very efficient and yet we don’t, we are 36th in the nation,” Jenna Jones with the Colorado Department of Health said.

Jones added that the crashes are a drain on community resources as well.

“It cost Colorado and its citizens over $623 million every year,” Jones said.

Last year, El Paso County had the highest number of traffic-related deaths in the state with a total of 76 fatalities. CDOT and CSP want to reduce the fatal crashes in 2018.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to enforce the law, we’re going to take those people that are making poor decisions, and we’re going to do our part of holding them accountable,” Col. Matthew Packard, Chief of the Colorado State Patrol said.

Leaders are also calling on the community to make a chance to see those numbers drop.

“This starts with the person, this is an individual decision to do the right thing,” Packard said.

“The number one party that is responsible for reducing these numbers of fatalities and serious injuries is us, as individual motorists,” Lewis said.

The only category where CDOT saw a decrease was motorcycle deaths. There were only 101 in 2017, that’s a 20 percent decrease from 2016.