The charged remains of a car involved in a fatal crash April 11 at I-225 and I-70.A big jump in the number of crashes so far this year has prompted police to go to the public and warn them about driving dangerously

DENVER | The Colorado Department of Transportation says traffic deaths rose by 10 percent last year to 545, the highest total since 2008.

The charged remains of a car involved in a fatal crash April 11 at I-225 and I-70.A big jump in the number of crashes so far this year has prompted police to go to the public and warn them about driving dangerously

Officials said Tuesday that 104 of those deaths were people on motorcycles, the most ever in the state.

They say one possible reason for the increase in overall deaths is that lower gasoline prices are leading to more people traveling.

The department says nearly half the people killed in passenger vehicles weren’t wearing seat belts. Officials say that’s a disproportionately high percentage, because only about 15 percent of Coloradans don’t wear seat belts.

The department says nearly one-third of last year’s traffic deaths were alcohol-related.

Jefferson County had the most traffic deaths, with 56. Weld was second with 55, followed by Denver with 49 and El Paso with 44.

2 replies on “Colorado traffic deaths rose by 10 percent to 545 in 2015”

  1. “half the people killed in passenger vehicles weren’t wearing seat belts”
    Darwin wins again.

  2. Mandatory self-driving cars cannot come soon enough. But alas, it’ll never happen, mainly due to paranoia. I know a lot of ladies who won’t fly, insisting on either being driven or taking a train.

Comments are closed.