With pedestrian deaths at a 40-year high, roadway safety has become a public health priority
About every 12 minutes, someone is killed on America’s roads and countless others are injured.
More than 42,500 people died in car crashes in 2022, a death toll that rivals or surpasses those of other major public health threats, such as the flu and gun violence.
“We have not recognized that traffic violence is a preventable public health crisis,” said Amy Cohen, a co-founder of Families for Safe Streets.
Traffic-related injuries and deaths cost the health-care system more than $55 billion in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And pedestrian deaths have spiked, reaching 7,522 in 2022, the highest level in more than four decades, according to the federal government.
