ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Safety officials say Minnesota’s traffic deaths in 2011 were the state’s lowest annual death count since 1944.

Officials on Wednesday released Minnesota’s final traffic crash report for 2011. It shows 368 deaths on Minnesota roads last year, the lowest annual figure since 1944 when 356 people were killed.

Minnesota recorded its fourth consecutive annual drop in road fatalities last year. Officials say smarter, safer driving is a big reason for the continuing drop in road deaths.

Seat-belt compliance is at a record high in Minnesota, and drunken-driving crashes have fallen in recent years.

But state Public Safety Commissioner Mona Dohman says still too many families and communities have been “torn apart by these preventable tragedies.”

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