file photo by Boyd Loving
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, the return to the roadways in 2021 after the 2020 COVID-19 shutdowns has brought with it a significant increase in traffic deaths in New Jersey, with the state recording the highest numbers it has seen in nearly 15 years.
According to New Jersey State Police data ,as of December 17th, there have been 630 fatal crashes in New Jersey, and 657 people have lost their lives as a result.
That’s a 17 percent increase in crashes and 11.9 percent increase in deaths over 2020, when there were 549 fatal crashes with 587 deaths — in spite of the pandemic shutdown. It’s also a 20 percent increase in crashes and 17.7 percent rise in deaths over 2019 in New Jersey, when there were 524 crashes and 558 deaths.
The 2021 count of fatalities, with two weeks left in the year, marks the highest number of fatal crashes since 2007, when there were 674 that killed 724 across the state. The lowest totals in the last 20 years were in 2013, with 508 crashes and 542 deaths resulting from them.
