Governors Highway Safety Association

Don't pop the champagne just yet.

2021 was the deadliest year on record for U.S. pedestrians since the early 80s — until 2022 topped it.

Pedestrian deaths are continuing to skyrocket as the pandemic drags on — and since 2019, analysts say the death rate for walkers has eclipsed the rate of population growth by a factor of at least nine. According to the latest fatality estimates from the Governor's Highway Safety Association, U.S. drivers killed 3,434 people on foot in the first six months of 2022, an increase of five percent over the same period the prior year — and a staggering 18 percent increase over the number of walkers who died in early 2019, the last year before the pandemic.  The group also pointed out that those numbers can't easily be explained by non-traffic-related factors, noting that since "2019, the last pre-pandemic year, pedestrian fatalities have surged 18 percent in just three years – nine times faster than U.S. population growth."

States that built streets for speed over safety experienced big fatality jumps even as driving diminished during the pandemic.

Maybe the 354th story with this headline will finally change some minds — or some federal regulations.

A surprising 17 percent of U.S. pedestrian deaths last year happened on roads where people theoretically should never be walking — and that troubling finding should prompt a conversation about why so many of them are doing it anyway.

The decade-long pedestrian death crisis has worsened, with a double-digit percentage increase in deaths caused by U.S. drivers — and experts are blaming it on speeding, distracted driving, larger vehicles and roads that prioritize car drivers over everyone else.

A prominent highway safety organization is still pushing enforcement and education in the fight to end roadway fatalities — again sparking controversy among advocates of better road design who say that driver behavior is already over-emphasized and policing subject to racial bias.

"[The report] helps us ... address a lot of problems with law enforcement in this country,” said Russ Martin, the spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, which undertook its review after the killing of George Floyd.