AUSTIN -- New numbers released by police Wednesday showed a big spike in deadly crashes in Austin.
Police say there were 78 crashes in 2012, a 42 percent increase from the previous year.
Alcohol or drugs were factors in more than half of those crashes, according to police. Distracted driving and speeding each played a role in about a third.
Pedestrians were the victims in one in three fatal crashes. A quarter of those incidents happened when someone tried to cross the main lanes of a highway.
There have already been 17 traffic fatalities in Austin this year.
