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DPS cites speed, impairment and seat-belt nonuse as main drivers of rising Minnesota road deaths
Summary
The Department of Public Safety told the Senate Transportation Committee that speed, impaired driving and lack of seat-belt use remain the top factors behind a recent rise in traffic fatalities and outlined programs — from data-driven enforcement pilots to community coalitions — intended to reduce deaths.
Mike Hanson, director of the Department of Public Safety’s Office of Traffic Safety, told the Minnesota Senate Transportation Committee on March 17 that speed remains the single biggest contributor to fatalities on state roads and that overall traffic deaths have trended upward since 2021.
Hanson said the department’s preliminary 2025 figures show an increase in January but cautioned those counts are provisional. "Speed continues to be our number 1 concern. Speed ... is the 1 thing that makes every other mistake or bad decision worse," Hanson told the committee.
The advisory council on traffic safety, which now houses the Toward 0 Deaths program, is coordinating engineering, education, enforcement and emergency-services strategies with MnDOT and the Department of Health, Hanson said. He described several ongoing efforts: a five-year Strategic Highway Safety Plan update with MnDOT; a subcommittee on traffic incident management; funding and support for roughly 20 locally led Safe Roads Coalitions (with about 30 additional unfunded coalitions active); and highway safety improvement…
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