— Montana finished the year with 186 traffic fatalities, the state’s lowest count since 1989. The Missoulian reported Tuesday that the tally was a slight decrease from last year, when 190 people died in traffic incidents. The two-year stretch is the first time since 1948 and 1949 that state highways saw fewer than 200 deaths in back-to-back years. Col. Tom Butler, chief of the Montana Highway Patrol, said the death tally is still a “tale of tragedy,” but is a positive. Montana’s worst year on record for traffic deaths was 1972, when 395 people died.

Source: National Post January 04, 2018 06:33 UTC