The Ocala Marion Transportation Planning Organization says that although the overall number of crashes in the county is down over the past five years, fatal crashes have increased over 50% in that same time.
The information was released earlier this week as part of a new Congestion Management Plan (CMP) by the Ocala Marion TPO.
According to the report, in 2016 there were 70 fatal crashes throughout Marion County.
In 2020, there were 108, which represents an increase of nearly 55%.
In 2020, there was a total of 341,299 crashes registered in the state of Florida. Over 5,900 of those took place in Marion County.
Of the 5,918 crashes in Marion County last year, nearly 5,000 resulted in injury and over 100 resulted in fatalities. Across the state, crashes claimed the lives of 3,344 people and injured 212,519 others last year.
The report says the number of severe injury crashes “decreased significantly” over the past five years, from 372 in 2016 to 304 last year.
Non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries have remained relatively steady since 2016 except for a peak of 62 in 2019, according to the report.
Across the United States, there are three states that consistently experience more fatal crashes per year than all others: California, Texas, and Florida. Filled with thousands of miles of roadways, those three states consistently produce the highest total number of vehicle miles traveled by riders each year.
The plan, which seeks to address congestion throughout the county through a series of goals and performance measures, indicates that the majority of the “congested vehicle-mile” growth over the next five years will come from I-75.
Fatalities are not limited to major highways, however.
The Ocala Marion TPO says that between 2008 and 2019, over 9,220 people were killed in red-light running related crashes across the country. The majority of those cases involved deaths of pedestrians, bicyclists, and occupants in other vehicles.
To read the full, 76-page report, visit the Ocala Marion TPO Congestion Management Plan draft webpage.
Submit your comments and feedback about the report through the Ocala Marion Transportation Planning Organization Feedback form.