Drivers in the United States hit and killed 3,434 people in the first half of 2022 – a 5% increase, or 168 deaths, according to a new analysis from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). period of the previous year. This deeply disturbing forecast comes after the highest number of pedestrian deaths in 2021 in the past 40 years and continues a gruesome decades-long trend of more and more people dying while walking on the road. road in the United States.
The GHSA’s annual Highway Safety Spotlight Report offers a first look at state and national trends in 2022 in data-driven pedestrian deaths. preliminary provided by the State Highway Safety Office (SHSO). Analysis of the data shows that the recent increase in pedestrian deaths is even more alarming when looking back at 2019, the last year before the pandemic. Pedestrian deaths increased by 18%, or 519 more deaths, from the first half of 2019 to 2022.
GHSA chief executive Jonathan Adkins said: “There is a crisis in pedestrian safety on our roads and it has only gotten worse since the beginning of the pandemic. “A single road death is tragic. But it is shocking and heartbreaking that motorists kill an average of 19 pedestrians every day. The only way to reverse this terrible trend is to do more of what works – infrastructure is better designed to keep people safe on the road, enforce traffic safety laws fair way to prevent dangerous driving and engage more communities where the impact of this crisis has been hardest.”
Nationwide, there will be 1.04 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people in 2022, a significant increase from 0.90 in 2019. The data analysis was performed by Dr. Elizabeth Petraglia of the research firm. save Westat.
Over the past ten years, the number of pedestrian deaths in the first half of the year has skyrocketed from 2,141 in 2013 to 3,434 in 2022 – a 60 percent increase, or nearly 1,300 deaths. Overall, traffic deaths have also increased since the start of the pandemic. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 31,785 people died in crashes in the first nine months of 2022, a slight drop after nearly 43,000 road deaths in 2021, the highest level since since 2005.
Why do so many pedestrians die on the roads in the United States? A combination of factors, including an increase in dangerous driving that began at the start of the pandemic and has not subsided; larger, heavier vehicles are more likely to seriously injure or kill pedestrians in the event of a collision; roads designed to prioritize faster traffic over slower, safer pedestrian speeds; and inadequate infrastructure such as sidewalks, crosswalks and lighting systems in many parts of the country.
At the state level, pedestrian death rates increased in 24 states in the first half of 2022. 21 states experienced declines and the number of pedestrian deaths remained unchanged in 4 states. While 15 states reported more pedestrian deaths for consecutive years (January-June), only 2 states reported declines for two consecutive years. Oklahoma was unable to make timely forecasts for this publication and was therefore excluded from the data analysis performed for this report.
To address this, GHSA supports a comprehensive solution based on the Safety Systems approach outlined in the National Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) of the US Department of Transportation. Each of the five elements of this approach – safe pedestrians, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads and post-collision care – contribute in different but overlapping ways to provides a multi-layered safety net that can protect pedestrians as well as pedestrians. other road users. GHSA is committed to supporting the NRSS and Safety Systems approach as comprehensive strategies to protect people outside of vehicles.
