The Worst U.S. States For Pedestrian Deaths

Earlier this week, the National Transportation Safety Board released its "Pedestrian Safety Special Investigative Report", which provides an overview of pedestrian fatalities and injuries in U.S. states and cities from 2007 to 2016. Generally, deaths among pedestrians tend to occur one by one (rather than being mass casualty events) and therefore, the issue receives little national attention. In 2016, 5,987 pedestrians were killed on U.S. roads, averaging 16 a day.

The following infographic was created using the NTSB data and it shows that the south of the country has the highest rates of pedestrian fatalities in 2016. That year, New Mexico had the highest fatality rate with 3.50 deaths per 100,000 residents, followed by Florida (3.16) and South Carolina (2.90). By comparison, 26 states had a fatality rate between 0.6 and 1.5 deaths per 100,000 residents. The analysis made numerous recommendations to the Federal Highway Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, such as better safety features for vehicles and roads as well as higher standards for automobile headlights.