PIERRE, S.D.(WNAX)- While the official numbers won’t be finalized for a couple of months, South Dakota Highway Patrol Colonel Rick Miller says the state saw a rise in traffic fatalities last year over 2020.

Miller says despite the rise, there is some encouraging news in the report.

Miller says they are expanding their highway safety education efforts.

The state had the lowest total in 2019 with one hundred two fatalities. There were years in the late sixties and early seventies with fatality counts of over three hundred.