ST. PAUL - Traffic deaths in 2015 rose by 14 percent in the past year, state Department of Public Safety officials said Thursday.
Fatalities reached 411 last year, according to a department press release, up from 361 in 2014. Seventy-four of those deaths were affected by distracted driving, the top contributing factor in lethal crashes.
The release also noted Independence Day is the deadliest major holiday for drunken driving-related crashes. In the past five years, 44 percent of all fatal crashes on July 4 involve alcohol, followed by Thanksgiving (36 percent) and Christmas (29 percent).
