Oklahoma Highway Safety Numbers Show Traffic Deaths On Decline

A report from the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office shows the number of traffic deaths this year is far lower than the total in 2021.

As of Oct. 11, there were 425 traffic deaths so far in 2022, the preliminary report said. During the same time in 2021, there were 524 fatalities.

If the rate in 2022 continues, Oklahoma is on pace to have 546 traffic deaths by the end of the year, far lower than the 654 fatalities in 2020, 640 in 2019, 655 in 2018 and 657 in 2017.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Eric Foster said the report does not paint a complete picture.

"They're not all statewide numbers, so the numbers that you get on that website, before they're collected, is automated numbers from OHP, Oklahoma City Police Department and Tulsa Police Department," Foster said. "Only those three."

Out of the 654 people who were killed in crashes in 2020, the office said 227 were not wearing seat belts.

"That's an easy fix,” Foster said. “That's just the discipline to put a seatbelt on to keep you inside the passenger compartment.” 

Foster said Oklahoma Highway Patrol will continue to take measures to help prevent crashes.

"There are spots around cities and even in counties where we see a higher-than-normal collision rate. And troopers are put in those areas to be a monitor and to be a presence there," Foster said. "At certain times of the year when we notice there are higher-than-normal crashes where we put more troopers out on the road in certain times of the year."