Dive Brief:
- Pedestrian deaths declined 7% in 2025 from the previous year, according to a Governors Highway Safety Association report released today. Drivers killed 6,732 people last year, compared to 7,237 in 2024, based on data from states and Washington, D.C.
- Last year’s pedestrian death toll marks the third consecutive year of declines from a peak of 7,737 deaths in 2022 but remains above the 2019 total of 6,412 fatalities.
- The report also includes data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s reporting system, which found that most pedestrian collisions with motor vehicles occurred in urban areas but crashes in rural areas are more likely to be fatal due to higher speeds and longer response times for medical assistance.
Dive Insight:
Although pedestrian deaths have declined in recent years, they represent an increasing percentage of all motor vehicle fatalities, the report states. In 2023 and 2024, pedestrian fatalities accounted for 18% of all such deaths, up from 15.5% in 2015.
The GHSA, based on NHTSA data, highlighted driver distraction as a factor in nearly 22% of pedestrian fatalities in 2024 and alcohol impairment as a factor among drivers aged 16 to 24. It also noted that light trucks, which include SUVs, pickup trucks and vans, accounted for just over half of all pedestrian deaths in 2024.
“States are ramping up their infrastructure, education and enforcement programs and looking to technology to better protect pedestrians and other vulnerable road users,” the report states.
New Mexico has the most pedestrian deaths on a per capita basis, with an estimated 4.27 per 100,000 people in 2025. The state will begin adding pedestrian safety to driver education programs and has increased its focus on vulnerable road users in road safety audits.
In Southern California, trained community members conduct walking and bicycling assessments and communicate with local officials on pedestrian-friendly infrastructure improvements, among other measures to prevent pedestrian deaths. California saw 239 fewer pedestrian deaths in 2025 than the previous year.
New York and Washington, D.C., send undercover officers to test whether drivers yield to pedestrians at crosswalks.
This summer, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont are increasing traffic enforcement, targeting distracted, impaired, speeding and wrong-way drivers, according to CBS News.
Cities including Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco employ automated traffic-enforcement technologies to reduce speeding and red-light running.
“We must stay vigilant and leverage proven countermeasures like traffic enforcement that focus on high-risk driving behavior, education and outreach initiatives, and infrastructure improvements,” GHSA Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Adkins said in a statement.
