Vermont’s highway fatalities have been climbing steadily since 2019, and the 74 road deaths recorded in 2021 marked Vermont’s highest count in nearly a decade.
So far this year, things are even worse. The state has suffered 25 highway fatalities in 2022, half a dozen more than the 19 recorded a year ago at this time.
“We're well above … where we're normally at this time of the year,” said Mandy White, data manager in the operations and safety bureau at the Vermont Agency of Transportation. “We’re trending very high this year.”
In 2021, speeding was the most common factor in Vermont’s fatal crashes, according to state statistics. Drivers age 65 or older had above-average fatality rates.
Driving under the influence of alcohol, cannabis or other drugs were also common factors, according to the state. Cannabis and other drugs factored into more fatal crashes than alcohol alone.
Motorcyclist crashes accounted for 16 of Vermont’s 69 total fatal crashes in 2021. Motorcyclist fatalities have increased steadily since 2018, and “this year we've already had three and we're not even into the summer months yet,” said acting Lt. Paul Ravelin of the Vermont State Police traffic safety office.
“So that's a concern that law enforcement is looking at,” Ravelin said. “With a significant rise in fuel prices, we may see more people operating motorcycles.”
Nationwide, almost 43,000 people died on roads in 2021, according to reporting by the Associated Press. That was the highest fatality count in the last 16 years and ran 10.5% ahead of 2020, the biggest percentage increase since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration started collecting fatality data in 1975.
Traffic fatalities were on the rise even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic’s onset in 2020, in spite of decreased utilization of roadways, according to estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“Vermont's a rural state. We don't have a lot of areas that have accessible public transportation, so most everyone that has to do their day-to-day business in Vermont needs to use the roads,” Ravelin said. “They're on our roadways; they're susceptible to these bad trends.”
Vermont State Police reported an uptick in aggressive driving, distracted driving, lack of seat belt use and impairment by alcohol or other drugs, all of which have correlated with crashes resulting in death or serious injury.
“We work very closely with our partners at Vermont Highway Safety Office, in the Vermont Agency of Transportation and we see the same data they see. We share and talk to our local partners,” Ravelin said. “This is an unacceptable trend and we're all on the same page, agreeing that we have to come up with solutions to make them go the other way.”
Reckless driving increased throughout the U.S. once the pandemic kicked in during March 2020, according to the Associated Press. Speeding and decreased seat belt use persisted in 2021, as people began to travel more with the relaxation of pandemic guidelines.
Ravelin and White both believe the pandemic might have contributed to the increase in Vermont fatalities.
“The traffic volumes have come up, but I feel like people definitely were taking bigger chances during the pandemic and the taking of chances hasn’t ebbed with the addition of more traffic on the road,” White said.
Lt. Allen Fortin, a member of the Vermont Highway Safety Office and an officer in the Chittenden County Sheriff's Department, believes drivers realized that police cut back on their public contact early in the pandemic — for officers’ own Covid safety — and weren’t catching minor offenses at their typical rates.
“People caught a cabin fever-type thing from staying home all the time,” Fortin said. “Now they're out and getting around and getting a little more freedom. So, yeah, they are taking a few more chances than they probably should.”
As part of a multipronged effort to increase driver safety in Vermont, Fortin works to coordinate “Click It or Ticket” press events every year to promote seat belt use, the most recent of which took place on Monday.
Both the raw number and total percentage of crash fatalities correlating with people not using seat belts hit a high in 2021, with 28 crash fatalities accounting for 61% of all deaths involving vehicles equipped with seat belts.
Fortin regularly collaborates with community partners, such as Students Against Destructive Decisions, to hold the Click It or Ticket events. The Vermont division of the student group competed in a seat-belt-buckling race against the New York division at Monday’s event.
“It's just fun,” Fortin said. “But it gets the idea that we're crossing borders. We're trying to get the students involved in realizing that seat belts are important and they save lives. Then we had a small barbecue after that.”
Fortin also works on getting Click It or Ticket stickers on the backs of vehicles as another way to raise public awareness. He currently has 20 trucking companies on board.
“If we could save one life by having somebody in a seat belt on those fatalities, isn't that worth it?” Fortin asked.
Vermont is almost at 89% compliance with seat belt use, which is relatively high for a state with only a secondary seat belt law for adults, he said. That means adults can be fined for not using seat belts, but police cannot pull them over solely for that reason.
“We feel we can go over the 90% mark, but we need the public's help doing that,” he said. He said he’d “love to see” a primary law, which would allow police to pull over people for not wearing seat belts, “but that’s up to legislators and the Vermont public.”
Other awareness efforts include regional campaigns to convey a strong police presence on the roads, particularly in areas with high accident rates, and partnering with driver education programs to encourage young drivers to develop healthy driving habits.
“One of the biggest pieces of this whole puzzle is that law enforcement alone cannot ticket their way out of this, we cannot arrest our way out of this, these trends. It just doesn't work,” Ravelin said. “It requires a partnership with all the stakeholders that are involved in using the roadways.”
Vermont State Police also try to educate drivers who have been pulled over for speeding or traffic violations, he said.
He advises people to build in a time buffer, and leave on time, so there’s no need to speed. He also tells drivers to stick to the posted speed limits, avoid driving impaired and wear seat belts.
“Just have a general responsibility to the roadway, to not only yourself but the other motorists around you,” he said.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont motor vehicle fatalities on the rise, alongside national trends.