For the first time in several years more people were killed on Colorado roads.
Colorado State Patrol today released new crash data from 2025, showing 698 traffic fatalities across the state. Roughly one in five were pedestrians. About one in four were on a motorcycle or bicycle. In total nine more people were killed than in 2024.
“While the increase is small, state agencies say the data points to concerning trends — particularly when it comes to impaired driving and bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities,” CDOT and state patrol say in a joint statement.
Last year’s fatal crash rate was third highest in recent history. The deadliest on record was 2022 with 764 fatalities.
Tomorrow, Jan. 23, troopers and state officials hold a press conference to review the numbers and talk about new strategies for road safety this year. They include enforcement, education and road engineering.
A decade of data suggests road fatalities come in waves. They spiked in 2017 before improving for two years, and then they spiked again to the grim record of 2022. They had been falling moderately again until this past year.
Data also suggests impaired driving got worse last year with 234 fatalities involving drugs or alcohol, the most since 2022.
Fatalities, where people were not wearing seatbelts, improved slightly.
Preview image via Colorado State Patrol outside of New Castle.