More people were killed in traffic fatalities in North Carolina last year than in any other year in the past two decades.
A total of 24 people died in car crashes in Columbus County in 2021, according to state officials.
Speed, distracted driving, and improper use of seat belts were cited by the state as major factors in the crashes last year.
The 1,755 people killed in traffic crashes in 2021 exceeded the state’s previous record of 1,704 traffic fatalities in 2007, according to preliminary data from the N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program. Last year’s numbers also represented an increase of five percent over the traffic fatalities recorded in 2020. Since 2016, the state has seen an upward trend in vehicle fatalities every year.
“Sadly, we have seen traffic fatalities moving in the wrong direction for a couple years in North Carolina and across the country,” said Mark Ezzell, director of the N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program. “People are dying in record numbers on our roads, and it’s going to take an all-hands on deck approach from communities, organizations and individual drivers to reverse this trend.”
Not all the news was bad, officials said. The 2021 data showed a decrease in some types of crashes compared to 2020 figures. North Carolina saw a decrease in traffic fatalities related to pedestrians, cyclists and work zones.
“We’ll continue to encourage collaboration and innovative, holistic approaches to improving safety on our roadways,” said Kevin Lacy, state traffic engineer with the N.C. Department of Transportation. “But in the meantime, we know everyone can play a part by slowing down, driving defensively, never driving distracted or impaired, and always buckling up in every seat of a vehicle.”
In 2021, the NCGHSP awarded more than $18 million in grants to nearly 100 organizations across North Carolina for a variety of initiatives targeting key traffic safety areas. Grant recipients include local and state law enforcement agencies, nonprofit organizations, courts and state departments. The Columbus County Sheriff’s Office has been aggressively pursuing GHSP grants, with some members of the HEAT Team focusing on moving violations.
State numbers are in line with a national trend, the DOT said. Nationally, 31,720 people were killed on roadways in the first nine months of 2021. Those totals represented more deaths on the nation’s roads than the first nine months of any year since 2006, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
A total of four people have died on Columbus County roadways so far this year.
