More than 7,500 people were killed last year after being struck by while walking along or across U.S. roadways, marking the most pedestrian deaths in more than four decades, a new report found.
The Governors Highway Safety Administration (GHSA), a nonprofit organization that represents state and territorial highway safety offices, projected that 7,508 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in 2022 – the highest since 1981 and a 1% increase from 2021.
The projected number is based on preliminary information from 49 states and Washington, D.C. Oklahoma did not provide data to the organization and averages 92 pedestrian deaths on a yearly basis.
The report also analyzed 2021 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) to provide additional context on when, where and how drivers strike and kill people on foot.
NHTSA found that speeding and other risky driving behaviors increased during the pandemic and persisted into 2021.
Dr. Travis Yates, author of “The Courageous Police Leader,” says that continually blaming on the pandemic for the rise in American deaths due to criminal activity needs to stop.
“We will never turn the tide on the victimization of Americans if we don’t open our eyes and recognize that law enforcement has a tremendous role in ensuring the safety of citizens,” Yates said.
Citing the anti-police rhetoric and legislation handcuffing cops in the months that followed the death of George Floyd, Yates says that it is no coincidence that more Americans have died on the road in recent years.
“We literally have cities banning low level traffic stops and every cop in America is scared to simply do their job because they don’t know what some politician or activist will say about them so it shouldn’t shock anyone that police activity is down and victimization is up,” Yates exclaimed.
Yates says that it’s time for law enforcement leaders to ignore the rhetoric and grandstanding and get back to the mission of policing…safety.
