Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2022 Preliminary Data

GHSA’s annual spotlight report, Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2022 Preliminary Data, projects that U.S. drivers struck and killed 3,434 people walking in the first half of 2022, up 5% from the year before, or 168 additional deaths.

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The data analysis found that the recent increase in pedestrian deaths is even more alarming when looking back to 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. Pedestrian deaths have surged 18%, or 519 additional lives lost, between the first half of 2019 and 2022 (see data chart below). Nationally, there were 1.04 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people in 2022, up significantly from 0.90 in 2019. The data analysis was conducted by Elizabeth Petraglia, Ph.D., of research firm Westat.

To combat this pedestrian safety crisis, GHSA supports a comprehensive solution based on the Safe System approach outlined in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS). Each of the five elements of this approach – safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads and post-crash care – contribute in different but overlapping ways to provide a multi-layered safety net that can protect people on foot as well as other road users.

GHSA will publish a second, comprehensive Spotlight report this spring that will include state fatality projections for all of 2022, an analysis of 2021 data from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and an overview of proven strategies states and communities are employing to reduce pedestrian crashes and injuries.