Nearly 12 months after its deadliest year on the roads, Colorado Springs is again approaching a record for traffic fatalities.
According to a Gazette tally of reports through Monday, the city has seen 48 deaths related to traffic. In 2020, Colorado Springs had 51 deaths — the highest number on record.
“Of course it’s a concern,” Colorado Springs Police Department spokeswoman Natashia Kerr said. “Every day we have officers going out there, they’re conducting traffic enforcement, we’re putting in tools like red light cameras, we’re going out and providing so much community education.
“But at the end of the day, we also realize that this isn’t a problem that law enforcement can solve ourselves.”
Of the 44 traffic fatalities in Colorado Springs through November, Kerr said 13 involved motorcycles, 11 involved pedestrians and five involved someone not wearing a seatbelt. Seventeen fatalities involved someone driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, but Kerr noted those numbers are subject to change pending more concrete evidence including toxicology reports.
Kerr said it’s difficult to pinpoint the reason for higher traffic fatalities the past two years — in 2019, Colorado Springs saw 42 — but noted that the department’s arrests “have the highest number of DUIs” and that the city also saw “a lot of, unfortunately, pedestrian fatalities this year where the pedestrians are at fault.”
“It’s not from a lack of enforcement or education, and we know there’s so many people out there that care about this that are trying to do their part,” she said. “But what we really, really want people to understand is there is an increase going on and … we need people to follow the rules of the road, which we’re just seeing people aren’t (doing) right now.”
Through Monday, El Paso County has seen 64 traffic-related deaths, according to an email from Colorado Department of Transportation traffic safety spokesman Sam Cole. Of those, 16 involved motorcycles and 16 involved suspected impaired driving. Six of the deaths involving motorcycles also involved suspected impaired driving, but Cole noted that impaired driving incidents depended on officers’ suspicions at the time of the crash.
Statewide, Colorado has seen 650 traffic-related fatalities in 2021, with 241 of those involving suspected impaired driving.
Heading into the final week of the year, Kerr reminded drivers that officers will be working to keep roads safe.
“Like always, we’ll have enforcement out there,” Kerr said. “We want people to be able to enjoy the holidays and be with their family if they can. We all deserve that. It’s been a long, hard couple years.”
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