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Despite less driving, fatal crashes and excessive speeding are up in Wisconsin in 2020

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    MADISON, Wis. (Wisconsin State Journal) — Traffic on Wisconsin’s roads remains lighter than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic started limiting the number of places people could drive to, but it’s unclear how or whether that’s related to reported increases in fatal traffic crashes, citations for excessive speeding and risky driving in general.

As of Nov. 16, 525 people had died on Wisconsin’s roads in 2020, or 33 more than during the same period last year, according to the state Department of Transportation. That’s despite fewer crashes overall and traffic volumes that, on the Beltline in Madison, for instance, were down by as much as half in April and remain about 25% below where they were prior to the pandemic.

Madison similarly as of Nov. 12 had had 12 fatal crashes this year, after recording only eight in all of 2019. It has seen 2,552 crashes, or well behind the pace set last year, when there were 5,140. The Dane County Sheriff’s Office has recorded nine fatalities this year in its jurisdiction after having the same number all of last year. DOT says the increase in road deaths is happening throughout the Midwest.

Much of the increase in road deaths has been driven by more passenger fatalities and deaths among motorcyclists, according to DOT. In the first 10 and a half months of the year, 114 people have died in motorcycle crashes, a 36% increase over the same period in 2019.

In a Nov. 11 podcast, state DOT secretary-designee Craig Thompson and superintendent of the State Patrol Tony Burrell pointed to an increase in risky driving behavior since the onset of the pandemic.

Burrell said it may be that risk-averse people have taken stay-at-home recommendations to heart and refrained from going anywhere, while “there are those who are less risk-averse and have engaged in behaviors such as not wearing seat belts, speeding and driving while impaired and that creates the challenges and the issues that we’re seeing out there with fatalities.”

Like police in Madison who have been trying to curb an increase in drag racing on major routes such as East Washington Avenue — made not only more possible but more alluring when there are fewer vehicles on the road — the State Patrol has likewise been doling out more tickets for driving faster than 100 mph.

Police were already seeing more tickets for the violation before the pandemic in January and February, according to DOT figures, but the monthly numbers started to double or triple in May. Through October, 1,137 people had been cited for going more than 100 mph; only 500 were cited in the first 10 months of last year.

Thompson said he’s been surprised by the trends, especially because the state during the first two and a half months of the year had been on track to see fewer fatalities in 2020 than it did in 2019 — just as it saw fewer fatalities in 2019 than it did in 2018.

“Not only is it not what we would think happen but it’s not generally what does happen,” he said. Traffic, crashes and fatalities were all down in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis that threw the nation into recession, he said.

Distracted driving
But David Noyce, a UW-Madison engineering professor and director of the university’s Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory, said many of the most serious crashes don’t have anything to do with the number of vehicles on the roads.

Like DOT, he said “driver distraction, often associated with cellphone use, remains a growing safety issue and not directly correlated to COVID-19,” especially when it comes to vehicles hitting pedestrians and bicyclists.

He also said there’s also been a “lot of discussion nationally about the impact of COVID-19 on mental health,” and that could be affecting driving behavior.

Fatal results
Thompson said that one out of every six crashes in Wisconsin is due to distracted driving, and that there are more fatalities attributed to distracted driving this year than all of last year.

Since the pandemic began, people also appear to be more likely to get behind the wheel while under the influence, he said, citing national research.

“Crash victims had a higher prevalence of alcohol, cannabinoids and opioids in their systems during the pandemic than before it and I think what we’re also hearing is that during this national public health emergency it is resulting in higher usage of opioids and cannabinoids and others,” he said.

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