The full report is still a work in progress, but the Minnesota Department of Transportation has released the preliminary traffic death toll for 2008 — 441.
Even if the final count rises to 450, as some officials expect, it would be the lowest number of traffic deaths on record in a single year for Minnesota since 1944.
Back then, 356 motorists were killed on Minnesota roads. The final 2007 death total was 510.
The Winter 2009 edition of MPH, the newsletter of the Office of Traffic Safety at MnDOT, said the preliminary traffic death total includes 69 motorcyclists – up from 61 in 2007 and 12 bicyclist deaths – up from four in 2007. The newsletter said the 2008 death total reflects 160 people inside vehicles who were not wearing a seat belt.
Pedestrian deaths totaled 25, ATV operators 6, school bus passengers 4, other bus passengers 1 and snowmobilers 1.
PritzkerOlsen Attorneys, a premier personal injury law firm with a national reputation and proven success in recovering compensation their clients deserve, has a Minnesota car accident lawyer for any type of motor vehicle accident or bicycle accident that causes serious injury or takes a life.
When someone dies in a Minnesota car accident due to the negligence of another, the spouse and next of kin can recover monetary damages for the car accident death under Minnesota wrongful death law.
