Fatalities on Minnesota Roads Increase in 2018

380 people lost their lives on highways in Minnesota this past year

BARNESVILLE, Minn. — Preliminary reports from the Minnesota State Patrol say that 380 people died in fatal crashes in 2018, twenty more than in 2017.

More than 120 were alcohol related, while 90 involved people not wearing their seatbelts.

The report says more than sixty of those deaths occurred since November.

Officers say seeing the preliminary numbers reinforces their goal to keep the roads safer in the new year.

“That’s usually the toughest part about being a trooper is having to make those notifications. That’s really what anyone in law enforcement why we get up each day and we put the uniform on to go out and do what we do, is to hopefully not have to make those kinds of notifications,” said Sgt. Jesse Grabow of the Minnesota State Patrol.

The first extra enforcement campaign of 2019 will focus on distracted driving.

That period begins on April 8.