Fatal Pedestrian Accidents in California
California is one of the largest and most populated states in the U.S. With that being said, you would expect many fatal traffic accidents to occur within the state. California had an average of 8.11 fatalities due to auto crashes per 100,000 residents, while the U.S. has an average of 10.92 fatalities per 100,000 in 2015, meaning Californians are less likely to be involved in fatal crashes than the average American citizen.
Pedestrians are one of the groups most vulnerable to fatalities caused by automobiles. During 2011 there was a total of 2,816 fatal accidents recorded in California with 633 of these fatalities being pedestrians. That is 22% of fatalities caused by automobile accidents. These numbers have continued to increase, as by the following year, 2,966 people were killed in auto accidents, and 653 were pedestrians, a full 22 percent of the total number of fatalities.
In 2015, a total of 3,176 people died in car wrecks, and 742 or 23% of these people were walkers, joggers, and those waiting for rides. So, while the number of fatalities that occur per year is growing the percentage of pedestrian fatalities has stayed very comparable over the past five years.
By race, Hispanic and White pedestrians are much more likely to be involved in a fatal automobile accident than other races. In 2014 there were 296 Hispanic individuals and 397 White individuals fatally injured, compared to 92 Black individuals and 81 Asian fatalities.
As anticipated, many more pedestrians are fatally injured in automobile accidents in larger metropolitan areas. Alameda County, Kern County, Orange County, Riverside County, Sacramento County, San Bernardino County, San Diego County, San Francisco County, and Santa Clara County all recorded between 20 and 68 pedestrian deaths due to automobile accidents in 2015. The most pedestrian fatalities occurred in Los Angeles County, with 186 pedestrians’ deaths occurring in 2015 alone. This number dropped from 209 in 2014.