SALT LAKE CITY — Utah had a significant increase in roadway fatalities during "The 100 Deadliest Days of Summer" this year.
The report shows 102 people lost their lives on Utah roads between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Officials with the Utah Department of Public Safety and the Utah Department of Transportation say fatal crashes are avoidable.
"Avoiding distractions, not driving impaired and reducing the speed and we wouldn’t be talking about this today," said Utah Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Nick Street.
According to Zero Fatalities, the five main contributing factors to fatal crashes are aggressive driving, driving while impaired, drowsy driving, distracted driving and not buckling up.
In July, UDOT maintenance workers Colby Larsen and Kurt O’Neal were nearly killed as they were clearing debris along I-15. Larsen was working behind a UDOT vehicle parked on the shoulder when he had to quickly move out of the way just before another car crashed into the UDOT vehicle.
"It happened so fast, you don't really realize what's going on because you're adrenaline's pumping," Larsen told FOX 13. "I'm a big man and I was running pretty fast, so, thankfully, I had someone there watching over me."
Of the last 10 years, 2019 had the smallest number of fatalities (61) during The 100 Deadliest Days of Summer in Utah.
Here are the statistics for The 100 Deadliest Days of Summer in Utah for 2011-2020:
- May 27, 2011 through September 5, 2011 (102 days) - 88 fatalities
- May 25, 2012 through September 3, 2012 (102 days) - 68 fatalities
- May 24, 2013 through September 2, 2013 (102 days) - 90 fatalities
- May 23, 2014 through September 8, 2014 (109 days) - 97 fatalities
- May 22, 2015 through September 7, 2015 (109 days) - 107 fatalities
- May 27, 2016 through September 5, 2016 (102 days) - 94 fatalities
- May 26, 2017 through September 4, 2017 (102 days) - 90 fatalities
- May 25, 2018 through September 3, 2018 (102 days) - 102 fatalities
- May 24, 2019 through September 2, 2019 (102 days) - 61 fatalities
- May 22, 2020 through September 7, 2020 (109 days) - 102 fatalities
