A crash with a person on foot on a freeway kills them more than a third of the time
Of pedestrian crashes on freeways, 37% were fatal (1,368 of 3,743), against 6.9% off the freeway (4,370 of 63,450).
The numbers
- On a freeway
- Off the freeway
Walking crashes, 2021–2026 (2026 so far). Found in 2021–2023 (39% vs 7.7%); held in 2024–2026 (34% vs 6%).
What it doesn't say
Many people on foot on a freeway have left a broken-down or crashed car. The data does not say why someone was there.
The share is within crashes: with no counts of how many people walk, ride or drive where, it can't say how likely a crash is for anyone.
How it was found
A scan of the crash records found it in the earlier years, among thousands of patterns tested with a false-discovery control, and it held in the later years, which the scan never saw. A person then read it and checked it isn't an artefact of how crashes are recorded. The numbers above are recomputed from the data each time the site is rebuilt. All findings and the method
Where to look next
- People hit on foot in the dark with no street lights are killed about four times as often
- On roads posted 50 mph or more, a third of pedestrian crashes are fatal
- Even in a crosswalk at an intersection, crashes at night on a lit street are about three times as deadly
- When the clocks go back in November, pedestrian crashes move into the dark