SCRANTON, Pa. — The numbers are stark: 220 dead in 207 crashes.
That’s the number of lives claimed by deadly wrecks in Lackawanna County between 2013 and 2023, according to an Action 16 review of state Department of Transportation data.
Where and how those crashes happened will underpin a new study of the county’s most dangerous roads.
The county commissioners unanimously voted at Wednesday’s meeting to hire Bowman Consulting Group, of Allentown, to help develop an action plan and better spend resources.
County Director of Economic Development Kristin Magnotta said during the meeting the plan will allow local governments to tap into money allocated by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 for projects addressing problem roads.
“We would work with PennDOT on all of this, but this plan would allow us and municipalities to be able to go in for later funds to help mitigate those areas that would be high-impact or near high-impact areas,” Magnotta said.
The county hired Bowman Consulting for $224,330. Last summer, officials received a $200,000 federal grant to start the work. In its grant application, the officials wrote they hope to reduce annual vehicle deaths by 80%.
Ahead of the study, Action 16 combed through more than a decade of county crash data.
Of the 207 fatal wrecks in that time, almost half were the result of aggressive driving. Drugs and alcohol also played a role in nearly half of the county’s deadly wrecks and a pedestrian died in 48 of the crashes.
Action 16 also plotted each crash onto a map. Here’s where they happened:
