Highway safety association finds US pedestrian death rate highest in 40 years
U.S. pedestrian deaths in 2021 were the highest in four decades, with an average of 20 deaths every day, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.
An estimated 7,485 pedestrians were killed in 2021, which was 12% more than in 2020, preliminary data show.
The findings are “heartbreaking and unacceptable,” said Jonathan
Adkins, executive director of the highway safety association.
“The pandemic has caused so much death and damage, it’s frustrating to see even more lives needlessly taken due to dangerous driving,” he said in an association news release.
The pedestrian fatality rate per 100,000 people rose to 2.26 in 2021 from 2.02 the previous year. There were 2.32 pedestrian deaths per billion vehicle miles traveled in 2021 — similar to 2020 but well above the pre-pandemic average of 1.9.
The reasons are clear: There has been an increase in speeding, impaired, distracted driving and other dangerous driving behaviors in recent years, according to the association’s report.
The report also included an analysis of 2010 to 2020 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That showed that the percentage of pedestrian fatalities involving speeding rose to 8.6% in 2020 from 7.2% in 2019.
The percentage of pedestrian deaths among children younger than 15 in which speeding was a factor more than doubled between 2018 and 2020, from 5.8% to almost 12%. Most of these fatalities occurred on weekdays and during daylight hours, which is when children would typically be going to and from school.