RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — State officials said 2021 was the deadliest year on North Carolina’s roads in two decades.

The state Department of Transportation said Thursday that 1,755 people were killed last year in traffic crashes in the state, according to preliminary figures from the Governor’s Highway Safety Program.

That exceeds the previous record of 1,704 in 2007.

Those deaths were up 5 percent from 2020 and mirror a national trend: There were 31,720 deaths on the nation’s roads during the first nine months of 2021, the most in that timeframe in any year since 2006, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“Sadly, we have seen traffic fatalities moving in the wrong direction for a couple years in North Carolina and across the country,” said Mark Ezzell, the governor’s highway safety program’s director. “People are dying in record numbers on our roads, and it’s going to take an all-hands on deck approach from communities, organizations and individual drivers to reverse this trend.”

Data show increases in deaths related to speeding, unbuckled occupants and distracted driving. There were, however, fewer fatalities related to pedestrians, cyclists and work zones, NCDOT said.

The governor’s safety program awarded more than $18 million in grants to nearly 100 organizations — including local and state law enforcement, nonprofits, courts and state departments — to target traffic safety.