More NC pedestrians died in the first half of 2020, even with fewer cars on the road
The number of pedestrians struck and killed in North Carolina rose during the first half of 2020, even as the coronavirus pandemic reduced traffic.
Through June of last year, 121 people were killed while on foot along the state’s roads and highways, according to preliminary data released Thursday by the Governors Highway Safety Association. That’s up 11% from the 109 pedestrians killed in North Carolina during the same period the year before.
The increase came at a time when stay-at-home orders and the closure of businesses and schools kept many from driving. Traffic dropped 30% to 50% in the state’s metro areas last March and April compared to pre-pandemic levels in mid-February, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation, and remained lower than normal through the summer.
The reduction in traffic likely contributed to the increase in pedestrian deaths, as people drove faster and paid less attention with fewer other cars around, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. Other factors include the design of streets and roads that prioritize cars and trucks over walking and cycling, the association said.
“As America gets vaccinated and returns to normal, we need to treat pedestrian safety like the public health emergency that it is,” Jonathan Adkins, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “We must strengthen our efforts to protect those on foot from traffic violence by implementing equitable and proven countermeasures that protect people walking and address those driving behaviors that pose the greatest risk.”
Nationwide, the association estimates that 2,957 pedestrians were killed in the first half of 2020, essentially unchanged from the year before. But the rate of deaths per vehicle miles traveled, which accounts for the reduction of cars on the road, rose 22%.
The number of pedestrians killed in North Carolina and nationwide has been rising for years. Nationwide, an estimated 6,301 pedestrians were killed in 2019, up 46% in a decade when the overall number of traffic fatalities rose 5%, according to the association.
In 2010, 13% of people killed in motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. were pedestrians; by 2019, it had risen to 17%.
Since bottoming out at 148 in 2009, the number of pedestrians killed each year in North Carolina had risen 56% by 2019, according to the Division of Motor Vehicles. Several factors contribute to that increase, including higher speeds and the growing size of vehicles such as SUVs, said Mark Ezzell, director of the N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program.
“This problem is uniquely difficult to solve,” Ezzell wrote in an email. “The solution to speeding is simple — drivers need to slow down. The solution to pedestrian deaths isn’t remotely as simple — it’s about better road design, safer car design, better educated drivers and pedestrians, even land use and disability access.”
Through the first half of 2020, North Carolina had 1.14 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents, tied with Texas for the 10th highest rate, according to the report released Thursday. New Mexico had the highest rate, at 2.2 per 100,000 residents, while Vermont had the lowest, at .18.
The decline in traffic during the first months of the pandemic resulted in fewer vehicle crashes. In the first week of April 2020, there were less than 3,000 collisions statewide, about half the five-year average, according to data compiled by NCDOT from municipalities and the State Highway Patrol.
But the number of people killed on the state’s highways didn’t decline at all last spring. Through mid-July of 2020, 770 people had died in traffic crashes, up 2.3% compared to the previous year, according to the DMV.
