Vision Zero Should Aim First at the People Dying on Foot

ROAD SAFETY - Nearly half of the people killed in Los Angeles traffic crashes were walking. If the city wants fewer deaths, it should start there, and with long corridors like Figueroa Street.

Federal crash records count 1,914 traffic deaths inside the City of Los Angeles from 2019 through 2024. Of those, 869 were pedestrians. That is 45 percent. No other group of road users comes close, and Vision Zero planning should be built around that number.

Who is dying on LA streets?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration keeps a nationwide census of fatal crashes, called the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, or FARS. Tallied for the City of Los Angeles, the six-year totals look like this:

• 1,914 people killed, in 1,822 fatal crashes
• 869 of them pedestrians (45 percent)
• 263 on motorcycles
• 82 on bicycles
• most of the rest riding in cars and trucks

One more figure matters more than the totals. In 2024, 156 of the 308 people killed were pedestrians, just over half.

Why did pedestrian deaths not fall with everything else?

Total traffic deaths in the city did fall after 2022, from 356 to 308 in 2024. Pedestrian deaths did not follow. They were 154 in 2022, 153 in 2023 and 156 in 2024, the highest count of any of the six years. Deaths of everyone else fell from 202 to 152 over the same two years.

That gap deserves more attention than it gets. A plan that treats all road deaths as one problem can show progress while the pedestrian toll holds steady.

What does Figueroa Street show?

Pedestrian deaths are not spread evenly across the map. Look at one street.

The California Highway Patrol runs the statewide California Crash Reporting System and publishes its crash records on the state's open data portal. As of October 15, 2026, the 2025 records list 14 fatal crashes in the City of Los Angeles where Figueroa Street is the listed road or the cross street. Each one killed one person. Nine of the 14 involved a pedestrian, according to the CHP's coding, and one of the 14 happened on the I-110 near Figueroa. Counted the same way, Broadway had 12 fatal crashes in 2025 and Van Nuys Boulevard had 10.

Two cautions. First, these are totals, not rates. Figueroa runs for many miles and carries a lot of traffic, and a long street will rack up large numbers even if every block were average. Second, CHP records can be revised as late reports come in, so treat the counts as a snapshot.

Still, the totals say something. Fourteen deaths on one street in one year is not a blip to shrug off.

Where should the city aim first?

The city already has a map for this. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation says its High Injury Network is 6 percent of city streets, over 450 miles, yet it accounts for 70 percent of deaths and severe injuries for people walking. LADOT says it focuses comprehensive safety improvements on a subset of that network, the Priority Corridors and Intersections.

That is the right idea. Here is how I would sharpen it:

1. Put pedestrians first in the ranking. When two projects compete for money, the one on a corridor with repeat pedestrian deaths should go first.
2. Lead with speed. LADOT's own guiding principles say that "reducing vehicle speed is fundamental to safer streets." Corridors with repeat deaths are where that principle should show up as concrete, lane by lane.
3. Publish a yearly scorecard. Residents should be able to see, in one place, pedestrian deaths for each major corridor next to its length and traffic counts, so long streets and short streets are compared fairly.
4. Count the drivers who flee. Of the 867 fatal crashes in the FARS records that involved a pedestrian, 324 involved a vehicle coded as a hit-and-run. That is 37 percent, more than one in three. Any scorecard should show it.

None of this is exotic. It asks the city to match its money to the place where its own data says people are dying.

If you or a family member was hit while walking

It helps to know the rules before a bad day. When a driver hits someone and leaves, the injured person may be able to claim against their own uninsured motorist coverage. Under Insurance Code section 11580.2, a hit-and-run with an unknown driver qualifies only if three things are true. The injury came from physical contact with the vehicle. Someone reported the crash to the police within 24 hours. And a sworn statement went to the insurer within 30 days.

Full disclosure: Local Press Desk, which prepared this piece, works with Moe Abdallah Law, a personal injury firm in downtown Los Angeles. Its page on how pedestrian injury claims work in Los Angeles covers LAPD collision reports, claims against the city and what a claim can recover. Every situation is different, so talk to a licensed California attorney about yours.

The next step for readers who want change is simple. Ask your council office which pedestrian-death corridors in your district are scheduled for safety work this year, and when.

Sources

• Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) national CSV files, 2019 to 2024, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, https://static.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa/downloads/FARS/2024/National/FARS2024NationalCSV.zip (other years at the same path with the year changed)
• California Crash Reporting System (CCRS), California Highway Patrol, data.ca.gov, accessed October 15, 2026, https://data.ca.gov/dataset/ccrs
• Vision Zero Maps (High Injury Network) and Vision Zero program page, Los Angeles Department of Transportation, https://ladotlivablestreets.org/programs/vision-zero/maps
• California Insurance Code section 11580.2, California Legislative Information, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=INS&sectionNum=11580.2

(Ryan Calloway writes about cars, driving and road safety for Local Press Desk, a PR agency that works with Moe Abdallah Law.)