The Nevada Department of Public Safety's Office of Traffic Safety just released crash and fatality numbers for July. As far as overall deaths on the roads, the numbers are down. But there are areas of Nevada like here in Washoe County, where the numbers have gone up.
From the 190 deaths we saw this time last year to 147 this year, a difference of 43, and that's a whopping 22 percent across the state.
"Kinda a mixed bag of results, some good news when it comes to state level because the overall numbers are down,” said Lt. Scott Shaw with the Reno Police Department’s (RPD) Traffic Division.
There was also good news in some of the types of crashes, as passenger deaths for crashes went down by 42 percent something RPD credits to seat belt compliance.
“That is good news for us, because that means more people are buckling up and less people are losing their lives because they are not wearing a seat belt," said Shaw.
But while the overall numbers have gone down, here in Washoe County the amount of fatal crashes involving pedestrians...has doubled.
“We have seen an uptake in pedestrian related fatalities, as well as motorcycle related fatalities, with five pedestrian and five motorcycle fatalities this year."
And with so many events attracting crowds of people on foot, RPD and local law enforcement are going to be focusing on pedestrian safety in the coming months.
Officials also say that the amount of bicyclist fatalities is up by 25 percent since last year; something that RPD says could be avoided by paying attention to your surroundings and giving bikes a wide birth.
“Sharing the roadway with bicyclists, and that includes giving bicyclists enough room, making sure you obey those lane lines when we have those bicycle lanes, and giving at lease three feet of room when you are passing."
