NJ road deaths on pace to top last year, and drivers are to blame

🚗 The road fatality count in 2024 is outpacing last year

🚗 Poor driver behavior is cited as a top contributing factor

🚗 Pedestrian deaths are up significantly

New Jersey is on pace in 2024 to easily surpass the number of road fatalities recorded in 2023.

As of Monday, 581 people had lost their lives on New Jersey's roads, as a result of 550 fatal crashes, according to New Jersey State Police data.

On the same date last year, the fatality count was 508, as a result of 481 fatal collisions.

"We need to remember that these are not numbers, these are people," said Tracy Noble, spokesperson for AAA Mid-Atlantic. "We need to have less people dying unnecessarily on our roadways."

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Outside factors, such as bad weather, come into play from time to time. But the overwhelming majority of fatal crashes can be blamed on driver behavior, Noble said.

"If drivers simply went back to the basics — if they put the phone down, if they drove the speed limit, if they were courteous to surrounding drivers — we would have far less fatalities on our roadways than we do right now," she said.

In the NJSP fatal crash report for 2022 — the latest year for which statistics are available — weather conditions were clear for about 87% of fatal crashes. The report cites dozens of contributing circumstances, such as driver impairment, driver inattention, unsafe speed, and failure to follow road signage.

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In all of 2023, New Jersey recorded 606 fatalities across 574 deadly crashes.

"I don't think anybody would be surprised if we surpass last year's final numbers in 2024," Noble said.

Of the 581 victims so far in 2024, more than 300 were drivers, and 71 were passengers, according to NJSP data. The pedestrian fatality count is 179; it was 132 on the same date last year.

Fatal crashes by county (as of Nov. 11, 2024)

⚫ Atlantic: 46

⚫ Bergen: 35

⚫ Burlington: 38

⚫ Camden: 33

⚫ Cape May: 7

⚫ Cumberland: 29

⚫ Essex: 43

⚫ Gloucester: 25

⚫ Hudson: 15

⚫ Hunterdon: 8

⚫ Mercer: 30

⚫ Middlesex: 54

⚫ Monmouth: 45

⚫ Morris: 16

⚫ Ocean: 41

⚫ Passaic: 28

⚫ Salem: 14

⚫ Somerset: 19

⚫ Sussex: 11

⚫ Union: 29

⚫ Warren: 14

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