Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Pedestrian deaths are increasing at a rate far faster than overall traffic fatalities. Between 2010 ..
. [+] and 2022, deaths to walkers rose 77%, while all other traffic fatalities increased 22%. Governors Highway Safety Association Drivers struck and killed over 7,300 walkers in the United States in 2023 – an average of 20 traffic deaths every day.
That’s a decrease of more than 5 % from 2022, but slightly more than 14 % above the pre-pandemic level in 2019. Overall, pedestrian fatalities have surged in recent years and reached a 40-year high in 2022. Contributing factors to the “troubling trend,” researchers said, are dangerous driving, infrastructure shortfalls, more people being killed at night, in areas where there are no sidewalks, and in crashes with larger vehicles, like SUVs and pickups.
The mixed news was announced in a new report released on Wednesday by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), a nonprofit organization representing state highway safety offices. “A decline in pedestrian deaths offers hope that after years of rising fatalities a new trend is starting,” Jonathan Adkins, the chief executive of the GHSA, said in a statement. “Each death is tragic and preventable.
” The safety group’s report, “ Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2023 Preliminary Data ,” includes an analysis of preliminary state-level fatality figures and federal data that examines when, where and how d.
