The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Data: Impaired drivers cause most fatal CT highway crashes
More than 75 percent of drivers who caused a fatal wrong-way crash on a state road in the past two years had a blood-alcohol content at least two times the legal limit or had consumed marijuana — or both — when the incident occurred, data culled from the Connecticut Department of Transportation shows.
Researchers, state officials and transportation experts are examining measures to prevent fatal wrong-way crashes, which have killed 14 people on Connecticut state roads in 2022 alone — the latest happened Sunday morning. The 14 wrong-way fatalities so far this year are more than all of 2019 when 10 people died, according to the data obtained by Hearst
Connecticut Media Group.
Memorial Day weekend — when there were 12 fatalities on state roads — was the deadliest unofficial start to summer for drivers on Connecticut’s highways since 2006, officials said.
The common factors in most of the fatal wrong-way crashes over the past five years are high alcohol consumption — in some cases, more than three times the legal limit of 0.08 — and driving during the hours of 11 p.m. and 4 a.m., according to Eric Jackson, executive director of the Connecticut Transportation Institute at the University of Connecticut.
“No amount of engineering or flashing lights is going to stop this,” Jackson said. “This is drivers making bad decisions.”
In all fatal crashes, state police investigate what the driver who caused the incident was doing during the previous 24 hours, including speaking to any bars or restaurants and possibly obtaining video footage, Trooper First Class
Pedro Muniz said.
Jackson's institute compiles and examines crash data from the DOT and other sources, including the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. All crash data is from incidents that occurred on state roads that are patrolled by state police. Local municipal data is not included in the statistics.
A Hearst Connecticut Media analysis of the data provided by the DOT and compiled by Jackson's institute shows that seven of the nine drivers involved in fatal wrong-way crashes between Aug. 5, 2020 and March 23, 2022 either had a blood-alcohol content of at least 0.18 or had a measurable amount of Tetrahydrocannabinol, the compound that is the main active ingredient of cannabis.
At least five of the drivers had a blood-alcohol content of 0.2 or above, more than twice the legal limit. Several had bloodalcohol content of 0.23 or above, according to the data.
Some experts speculate the pandemic is having an adverse impact on drivers, causing some to engage in more speeding or risky behaviors. But data from 10 fatal wrong-way crashes that occurred prior to the start of the pandemic from March 19, 2017 to Oct. 9, 2019, revealed that eight drivers either had a bloodalcohol content of 0.14 or above or drugs in their system at the time of the incident.
There was no toxicology report or information on the driver for one of the 10 crashes, the data showed. In two other cases, the blood-alcohol content levels were not listed for the drivers, but the accident report said the incident was a “DUI,” or driving while under the influence, the data showed.
In three cases, the drivers had both alcohol and THC in their system when the crash occurred, the data showed. Several of the drivers had a blood-alcohol content of 0.2 or above, according to the data.
“The data is really startling,” said Josh Morgan, spokesperson for the DOT. “The vast majority of people who cause these crashes are impaired.”
It's a problem that has persisted since Mothers Against Drunk Driving was formed 40 years ago, according to MADD New England Regional Regional Director Bob Garguilo.
“These crashes are 100 percent preventable,” Garguilo said. “People need to make the right decision, they need to have a plan before they go out. These types of crashes are something that doesn't have to happen.”
Although the amount of cars on the road has decreased during the pandemic because more people are working from home, the number of drunken driving fatalities increased nationally to more than 11,000 in 2021, Garguilo said. He said he can't explain why there are more wrong-way fatal crashes that involve people who are highly impaired or why there are more fatal crashes involving alcohol in the past two years.
“The bottom line is, there is no excuse,” Garguilo said. “If you have the money to go out and drink, you have the money to call for a ride-share like Lyft and Uber.”
In Connecticut, state police issued 71,223 overall violations in 2021. That's about half of what they issued in 2018, figures from the agency showed. But state troopers issued more driving while under the influence arrests in 2021 — 1,967 — compared with 2018 when 1,778 DUI arrests were made.
According to figures provided by Jackson, there has been an average of 23 wrong-way crashes on Connecticut's highways yearly from 2017 to 2022. The crashes range from fatalities to serious or minor injuries to property damage.
During that period, there were 21 fatal wrong-way crashes — an average of four each year — that killed 36 people, the data showed.
The DOT recently added signage at 700 locations around state highways, making it clear to drivers they are headed the wrong way, Morgan said. The
agency will also install a warning system for wrongway drivers at 15 high-risk locations in about the next year. When a driver goes the wrong-way at any of those locations, lights will flash to alert the person they are going the wrong direction, Morgan said.
The initiative is based on a wrong-way detection system installed in Rhode Island and San Antonio, Texas, where officials said there was a 30 percent reduction in wrong-way driving incidents after the program launched.
The system will help drivers who are not dramatically impaired, Jackson said. But it's not likely to have an impact on those people who are driving while two or three times over the legal limit for alcohol, he said.
“There is no way we can engineer against this,” Jackson said.
He said there needs to be a renewed focus on making people aware of the dangers of impaired driving. There also needs to be more technology built into automobiles that can detect when a driver has had too much to drink and shut off the vehicle or prevent people from going the wrong way, he said.
The DOT is hoping the added signage and the warning system will help, Morgan said.
“These are really concerning numbers and trends right now,” Morgan said. “If we can stop just one wrong-way driver that will be enough. These are tragic numbers we're seeing.”