Consultants present Torrington Safety Action Plan, identify 65 high‑injury locations; council adoption next step

Consultants from VN Engineers on Tuesday presented the City of Torrington’s Safety Action Plan, funded through the federal Safe Streets for All (SS4A) grant, summarizing crash data, public outreach results and recommended actions to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries.

The plan identified 65 locations in Torrington that make up a citywide high‑injury network — about 22 roadway segments and 43 intersections — and recommends a mix of systemwide actions (education, enforcement, signage) and corridor‑specific countermeasures for sites such as East Main Street and Prospect Street. "The ultimate goal for this is to prevent death and serious injury on roads," VN Engineers consultant Nancy Datta said.

The report combines crash records and public survey responses to prioritize investments. Datta said the Northwestern Hills Council of Governments data showed 72 fatal crashes across the 21‑municipality region from 2019–2023, with 20 of those fatalities occurring in Torrington; the plan also tallied 48 pedestrian injury crashes and 16 bicycle crashes in the city during the same period. Datta said about 41 percent of injury crashes occurred in four census tracts identified by the Connecticut Justice Reintegration/Justice Screening Tool as having higher socioeconomic burdens, and that seven of Torrington’s 20 fatalities were clustered in those tracts.

The plan groups recommendations by scale. Systemwide measures include…