Overdoses continue to drop in Westmoreland, but traffic deaths jump 50%

Westmoreland County Coroner Ken Bacha’s 2019 annual report released Monday showed an expected decline in drug overdose deaths for the second consecutive year, but it also disclosed a dramatic 50% increase in traffic fatalities.

The local traffic deaths, which jumped from from 18 in 2018 to to 27 in 2019, counter a nationwide trend of declining fatal car crashes, according to the National Traffic Safety Council.

In 2019, an estimated 38,800 people nationwide lost their lives to car crashes, which was a 2% decline from 2018, with 39,404 deaths, and a 4% decline from 2017, with 40,231 deaths.

“I really can’t put my figure on any particular reason for that (increase in traffic deaths),” Bacha said. “I do know that in 2018 that number was lower than in previous years… so that could be the reason why it sticks out,.”

In 2017, there were 22 traffic deaths reported in Westmoreland, there were 25 in 2016 and 32 in 2015.

“Also, in the 1950s and 1960s, there were even significantly more fatalities with numbers up in the 80s to more than 100. But we’ve had a lot of safety improvements since then, particularly the use of seat belts, but airbags, too, and the overall vehicle technology, and the improved equipment and response times of both paramedics and firefighters,” Bacha said.

Through the first five months of 2020, the number of traffic fatalities does not appear to be declining, with 11 deaths recorded through May, according to the coroner.

In Allegheny County, the medical examiner has not released the 2019 figures, but in 2018, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported the county experienced 67 traffic deaths, an increase of five from the year before.

As for positive trends, Bacha said he was pleased that the number of drug overdose deaths continued to drop in 2019, with 115 deaths recorded compared to 122 in 2018. In 2017, the county had 193 deaths.

Bacha said the 40% drop from 193 deaths in 2017 to 115 this year encourages officials that awareness, education and other efforts are helping.

“It’s not as big a decrease as the previous year, but it’s promising,” Bacha said.

In 2019, Allegheny County reported 484 overdose deaths, a slight increase in the 432 reported in 2018, according to OverdoseFreePa.org.

Through May, the OverdoseFreePa.org website run by the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Pharmacy had recorded 64 deaths in Allegheny, but it was not clear the last time those numbers were updated.

The report showed Unity had the most overdoses in the county with 12, while Greensburg and New Kensington each had 11 and Hempfield had 10.

Tim Phillips, director of the Westmoreland County Drug Overdose Task Force, said the efforts of the organization continued through the coronavirus pandemic.

Phillips noted that he personally made several “porch deliveries” of the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone during the past several weeks. He noted that pharmacists at the Medicine Shoppe in Latrobe also mailed naloxone during the pandemic to prevent person-to-person contact as long as clients provided insurance information.

“We’re still finding ways to help people through this,” Phillips said.

Phillips is hopeful that the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy decision last week to designate Westmoreland a “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area” will increase opportunities to battle the drug overdose problem and possibly experience a third consecutive year of reduced overdose deaths.

The label makes the county eligible for increased federal funding, sharing of intelligence, analytical support and enhanced training opportunities.

Westmoreland joins Allegheny, Beaver and Washington counties in the region with the designation, which brings federal resources to coordinate the fight against drug trafficking and abuse, said U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady in Pittsburgh.

With 30 overdoses recorded through the first five months of this year and 16 other potential overdoses under investigation, reducing the 115 number remains the goal, Bacha and Phillips said.