A crash on the Beltline Thursday afternoon marked the 20th in May, a number law enforcement who patrols the area fears will continue to grow.
A number of factors, including construction as well as more people returning to a daily commute, are easy to explain. Some factors, however, aren’t.
“There was an obvious reduction in traffic enforcement during the pandemic because we reduced the number of discretionary contacts to try to reduce the spread of the pandemic,” said Dane County Deputy Sheriff Steven Mueller. “There were some obvious results of that, including increased speed, reduced seatbelt usage, stuff like that. Those statistics won’t be known for a long time, but we’re seeing the results in crashes.”
Earlier this week, an early morning crash forced all westbound lanes on the Beltline to close.
“That was just inattentive driving,” Mueller said.