Connecticut
Hundreds died on CT roads last year. Officials want to reduce that number to zero.
HARTFORD — Federal and Connecticut officials on Friday broached a plan to help curb the nation’s dramatic increase in traffic fatalities over the past 10 years, which has become the leading cause of death for Americans under 54, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and has been shown to disproportionately affect minorities.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal joined Connecticut Department of Transportation officials in Hartford to introduce the “Road to Zero Resolution” that aims to end all roadway fatalities by 2050. They spoke at the corner of Broad Street and Farmington Avenue, one of the deadliest intersections in the state, according to Blumenthal.
According to the Connecticut DOT, more than 380 people were killed on state roads last year — the highest number in three decades. Included in this figure are the 73 pedestrians who were struck and killed in Connecticut in 2022, in addition to the 228 pedestrians who suffered serious injuries as a result of a car crash.
“This year has been the deadliest, the deadliest year on record for pedestrians and bicyclists,” Blumenthal said. “That is 10 times roughly just 10 years ago.”
“The national trend is very similar,” he said.
The CDC indicates that traffic crashes are killing more than 100 people every day. Blumenthal said those who use Connecticut roads deserve better protection.
“In Connecticut, there is no excuse for this new record,” he said.
“This is an issue that I take personally, that all of us at the DOT take personally,” said DOT Commissioner Gary Eucalitto.
“It’s really important for us to focus on what we can do to make our roads safer,” Eucalitto continued. “Every time we go in and do a project, we’re looking at how we can improve that intersection, how we can improve that roadway, the sidewalks, we can install bike infrastructure, but unfortunately it takes a long time to address the tens of thousands of miles of roadway we have in our state.”
The resolution — also endorsed by U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois — calls on Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation to commit to working together to collect better data on traffic crashes and implement “proven countermeasures and interventions to prioritize transportation safety.”
“We know how to do it,” Blumenthal said. “There’s no magic or mystery here. Improve technology and increase investment.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that 42,795 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2022, a small decrease from the 42,939 killed in 2021, but still about a 30% increase compared to 2011. The decrease, Blumenthal said, came following the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that included “historic funding” for transportation safety.
Additionally, the senator said the federal government just announced $2.5 million that will go toward communities in Connecticut to improve roads and walkways.
Without providing specifics, the Road to Zero Resolution also states it “supports efforts to address disparities and other equity-related issues related to transportation,” citing statistics provided by the National Complete Streets Coalition, a program of Smart Growth America, that indicates pedestrian fatalities compared to that of white, non-Hispanic individuals is 220% higher for American Indian and Alaska Native people, 100% higher for the Black community and 20% higher for Hispanic and Latinx people.
Complete Streets also estimates that low-income neighborhoods experience more than twice as many pedestrian fatalities as neighborhoods with the highest incomes.
“So far in 2023, we have already lost 29 pedestrians and two bicyclists, and this affects our most vulnerable population: people of color and also older Americans,” said Amy Watkins of Watch for Me CT, which is spearheaded by the state DOT.
According to the NHTSA, 7,388 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in 2021, which represents a 22% increase over the past five years and a 53% increase from 2012.
Some of the contributing factors to the rise in traffic fatalities include larger SUVs, drinking and driving, distracted driving, speeding, failure to wear a seatbelt and an increase in speed limits over the past two and a half decades, according to officials.
The NHTSA said alcohol-impaired crashes are a leading killer on the roadways of the nation, with 13,384 lives lost in 2021 involving drinking and driving. Distracted driving, the NHTSA said, was responsible for 3,522 deaths in 2021.
The NHTSA estimates that seatbelts prevented 14,653 fatalities and 450,000 serious injuries in 2019, saving a whopping $93 billion in “medical care, lost productivity and other injury-related costs.” In 2021, the NHTSA indicates 50% of passengers who died in a crash did not have a seatbelt on, and 85% of occupants who survived a crash were wearing a restraint.
Another contributing factor to an increase in traffic fatalities has been the increase in speed limits over the last 25 years, which the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates has led to about 37,000 deaths.
Speeding was blamed for 29% of all traffic fatalities in 2021, according to the NHTSA.
According to Consumer Reports, safety technologies available that are used in select vehicles could cut road fatalities in half if they were made standard on all vehicles, which could save about 20,000 lives each year.
“We have the technology available to help improve safety on our roadways,” Eucalitto said. “The technology for collision avoidance, automatic emergency braking, all the things that the senator has pushed for in D.C., is available and it shouldn’t be a luxury, it should be something that everyone should be able to have in their vehicle.”
Connecticut
Tractor-trailer carrying thousands of gallons of fuel catches fire on I-91 in Wethersfield
A tractor-trailer hauling thousands of gallons of fuel caught fire on Interstate 91 North in Wethersfield on Friday morning.
State police said state troopers responded to I-91 North near exit 24 around 7:42 a.m. and found the cab of a tractor- trailer carrying 7,500 gallons of fuel on fire.
The driver was able to get out of the truck and was not injured, according to state police.
The fire departments from Wethersfield and Rocky Hill responded to the scene to extinguish the fire and troopers shut down I-91 North and South as well as oncoming traffic from Route 3 to I-91 South.
Because the truck was hauling fuel, troopers worked to move drivers who were nearby, state police said.
I-91 South reopened shortly after the fire was out.
The left two lanes of I-91 North have been reopened and the state police Fire & Explosives Investigation Unit is also responding to assist with the investigation.
State police said the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection later responded to the scene.
Connecticut
Connecticut couple charged in alleged Lululemon theft spree that netted up to $1 million
A Connecticut couple has been charged in connection with an elaborate two-month theft spree at Lululemon stores across the country that an investigator with the retailer estimates netted about $1 million worth of product.
Jadion Richards, 44, and Akwele Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested on Nov. 14 in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota suburb of Woodbury. The couple, from Danbury, Connecticut, were charged with organized retail theft after a Lululemon retail crime investigator contacted local authorities in Minnesota.
But Lululemon’s investigator said evidence shows their crimes go back to September and took place in states like Utah, Colorado, New York and Connecticut, according to the criminal complaint.
Attorneys representing Richards and Lawes-Richards did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment Thursday.
Richards claimed he was racially profiled, complaint says
Richards and Lawes-Richards were stopped after exiting the Lululemon store in Roseville, Minnesota, on Nov. 14 when the security alarm went off, according to the criminal complaint. Richards allegedly claimed store employees racially profiled him and the two were allowed to leave afterward.
The Lululemon investigator later alleged the two visited the store the day before on Nov. 13 with an unidentified man and stole 45 item valued at nearly $5,000. That same day, the pair had allegedly conducted four other thefts in Minneapolis, Edina and Minnetonka.
Officers arrested the couple at the Lululemon in Woodbury. The two denied any involvement in the theft, with Lawes-Richards allegedly claiming they were staying with her aunt and had only been in Minnesota for a day.
Officers found several credit and debit cards on the couple, as well as an access card to a Marriott hotel room. Using a search warrant, officers found 12 suitcases in their room, including three filled with Lululemon clothing with tags attached worth over $50,000, according to the complaint.
In all, the company investigator estimated the couple has taken up to $1 million in stolen product, according to the complaint, which does not detail how he arrived at the high figure.
Couple blocked cameras among other tactics: Investigator
The Lululemon investigator said one of the couple’s alleged tactics was for one of them to distract associates while another stuffed product in the clothes they were wearing, according to the complaint.
Another technique involved the two strategically exiting the store, with one of them holding a cheap item they had bought and the other carrying more expensive products that had sensors, according to the complaint. When the alarm would sound off, only the person with the cheap, purchased item would stay behind and show a receipt, while the other would keep walking with the stolen product, the complaint says.
The pair are accused in eight Colorado theft incidents between Oct. 29 and 30, and seven thefts in Utah on Nov. 6 and 7, according to the complaint.
The pair are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in Minnesota, court records show. Their next court appearance is set for Dec. 16.
Connecticut
Connecticut readers get the shaft from newspaper’s vulgar Jets headline blunder
Ouch!
A newspaper in Connecticut had an unfortunate typo involving Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley’s herniated disc on Monday.
This past Monday, The Chronicle, a newspaper covering Eastern Connecticut, published an AP story on the front page of its sports section in the print edition that referred to Mosley’s “herniated d–k.”
Mosley has missed the Jets’ four games with the injury — the one in his neck, that is.
In the copy, Mosley’s injury was not shafted, getting described correctly in the nut graph.
The unfortunate phallacy did not go unnoticed: in an extra twist, the error went viral when it was posted on the X account of David Coverdale, the 73-year-old singer of Whitesnake.
An editor for The Chronicle told The Post that the newspaper would be issuing a correction in the paper.
Last week, prior to the Jets’ loss to the Colts, Mosley spoke about how he hoped to return after the Jets’ bye, when they host the Seahawks on Dec. 1.
“That’s definitely the goal,” he said. “I’m in a position where I’ve played a lot of football. Me missing this time won’t hurt me as much as another guy that might need this opportunity. It’s about safety at the end of the day. When I go home, I’m Clint Mosley. I’m C.J. I’m not the football player.”
Mosley said the birth of his daughter, who arrived the week after his injury, put things in perspective for him.
“I had a full week of having a normal neck and ever since then every time I’m looking down, my neck’s hurting,” Mosley said. “It puts things in perspective. There’s a lot of life after football. When I’m done playing, I want to make sure I’m 100 percent.”
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