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CT sees alarming increase in traffic deaths at start of 2025

Connecticut officials are asking drivers to slow down and move over when they see vehicles parked on the shoulder of the road. Two state employees have been killed by drunk drivers who veered off the road in the last month.
Molly Ingram
/
WSHU
The highway as seen from a Connecticut roadside construction site.

An uptick in fatalities on Connecticut’s roadways seems to be continuing in the new year. There’s been a death on the roads almost every day in January.

Dr. Eric Jackson is the executive director of the Connecticut Transportation Institute. He said pedestrian deaths, in particular, are increasing, up 14% over the last five years.

“What we are seeing is on the pedestrian side, our older pedestrians are much more likely to be struck and killed in the roadway,” Jackson said. “They have mobility issues. They walk slower so they’re in the roadway much longer. So, we’re overrepresented in terms of older pedestrians or vulnerable road users in our crash data.”

In 2024, Jackson said there were 64 pedestrian fatalities, 169 driver and passenger fatalities, 77 motorcycle fatalities and 4 bicyclists fatalities.

He also said Connecticut has a culture of impaired driving and impaired fatalities, regularly appearing as a top state for accidents involving alcohol, drugs or both.

An award-winning freelance reporter/host for WSHU, Brian lives in southeastern Connecticut and covers stories for WSHU across the Eastern side of the state.