ShareThisTraffic fatalities continue to decline nationwide, and Minnesota officials are using new strategies to try to push numbers there even lower.
Deaths on Minnesota roads are projected to reach about 420 for 2010, a number nearly identical to the 65-year low a year earlier, the state Department of Public Safety announced Monday. (Highway deaths nationwide fell to 33,808 in 2009, the most recent year for which the U.S. Department of Transportation has data.) Now, honoring the story behind each fatality -- and the teachable moment that comes with many of them -- the agency has created a Minnesota Crash Victims Memorial website to put faces to names and to try to further shrink the carnage on state roads.
.Among the first victims to be remembered on the Minnesota site, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, is Kelsey Kjos, 16, of Alexandria, whose 2004 death helped inspire legislation putting muscle behind efforts to boost seat belt use.
"There is a Kelsey in almost everyone's life," her mother, Loni Kjos, said last week. In fact, the family next door experienced a traffic-death tragedy. Dennis Dumm grew up there, and at age 31, while bicycling in Minneapolis, he was killed. His death was the same week the seat belt law passed. His story is part of the site.
(While the national death toll is at its lowest recorded level since 1950, a Scripps Howard News Service report indicates the routine act of driving has become the riskiest thing most Americans do. Find a map of traffic deaths by county at http://www.scrippsnews.com/killerroads/.)
Officials see the site as a way to promote safe driving. They say education is a factor in why road deaths have dropped by more than 200 since 2002.
There have been setbacks, however. Preliminary statistics released Monday show teen deaths rising from 35 in 2009 to 37 in 2010.
But total Minnesota road deaths stood at 410 in the preliminary tally, down from 2009's total of 421, the lowest number since 1944. State officials expect the final 2010 figure to be about 420 after additional reports are received. The reduction over eight years is "very significant," Public Safety Commissioner Michael Campion said, attributing the decline to such factors as targeted enforcement, improved engineering of cable median barriers, safer vehicles and traffic legislation.
Kelsey Kjos is another reason more people are clicking their seat belts. Ten stories were on the site Monday; more are expected. Kirsty Kilpela, 16, of Eveleth, is the lone 2010 victim; her death came on Oct. 7 after a wrong-way driver struck a truck being driven by her sister, the family wrote.
Kelsey Kjos died an unlikely death. Forever, her family wrote, she had been the one to tell people to buckle up. Yet, when her friend rolled her vehicle on a beautiful afternoon in November 2004, Kelsey was unbelted. Her friend, who was wearing her seat belt, suffered a hand injury.
Kelsey's family and friends helped secure passage of a primary seat belt law allowing officers to stop drivers or passengers for belt violations.
Loni Kjos said one potential use of the website could be as required viewing for teens taking driver's education classes.
In the meantime, the primary seat belt law that her daughter helped inspire continues to save lives. Daytime seat belt compliance is at a record high, and when combined with tougher DWI sanctions enacted in 2010, the milestones "will drive the trend of fewer road deaths in 2011," the Public Safety Department predicts.
Next door to the Kjos residence, Dennis Dumm's relatives remember their anguish upon learning that he'd been killed -- struck by a truck that crossed in front of him. "What do I do now? What do I do now?" they recall crying.
Today, they know the answer. "Bike safely," they say. "Be a careful driver. Be aware."
(Contact Anthony Lonetree at alonetree(at)startribune.com. The Scripps Howard News Service contributed to this report.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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