The New Year’s holiday is one of the deadliest times on Illinois roads, with 35 people killed in crashes during that period over the past five years.
Alcohol played a role in 15 of the accidents that led to those fatalities, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation, which varies its definition on the length of the holiday depending on what day Dec. 31 falls. In addition to the fatalities, 2,477 people were injured in New Year’s holiday crashes from 2009 to 2013, IDOT said.
In an effort to make the roads safer, additional traffic enforcement patrols will be assigned throughout the state Wednesday and Thursday, with a focus on stopping drivers impaired by alcohol and drugs, said Illinois State Police Sgt. Jose DeJesus.
“As with any holiday, we anticipate that people will be out celebrating,” DeJesus said. “We want to make sure they’re celebrating responsibly.”
During the 48 hours covering Dec. 31, 2012, and Jan.1, 2013, Illinois State Police officers charged 73 people with driving under the influence of alcohol — the highest number in the past four years. In those two days from 2010 to 2014, 185 people were charged with drinking and driving.
Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said alcohol is involved in 54 percent of fatal accidents nationally on Jan. 1, more than any other day of the year. Generally, about a third of all road fatalities involve alcohol, he said.
The National Safety Council predicts that 421 people will die on U.S. roads between 6 p.m. Wednesday and midnight Monday.
DeJesus said efforts by state police as well as IDOT and local law enforcement have contributed to a decrease in traffic fatalities over the past 20 years. As 2014 comes to an end, officials expected to again count fewer than 1,000 traffic fatalities statewide, the sixth year in a row that the total has remained under four digits, IDOT said. Before that, there hadn’t been fewer than 1,000 traffic fatalities in the state since data collection started in 1920.
IDOT spokeswoman Carson Quinn said fatalities were down in early 2014 because of harsh winter weather and a decrease in travel. She said the decrease in fatalities also can be attributed to safer cars, changing laws and road maintenance.
Legislation aimed at making Illinois roads safer includes a 2003 law allowing officers to stop cars if the occupants aren’t wearing seat belts. Using hand-held devices while driving also is illegal in Illinois, starting in 2014.
Rader said that as the economy improves, people are buying better cars that are also safer, which he said is the main factor in roadway fatalities decreasing across the U.S.
“People are walking away from crashes that would have killed them 15-20 years ago,” he said.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported that in 2012, 7.4 of every 100,000 people in Illinois died in a car accident. That number is low compared with those of other states with similar populations. Pennsylvania, which has a slightly lower population, saw 1,310 fatalities in 2012 compared with Illinois’ 956.
Kara Macek of the Governors Highway Safety Association said Illinois has made great strides in road safety, “But we’ve hit a plateau, and we need to step it up on the top three issues; speeding, drunk driving and distractions.”
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