Automobile-obsessed Texas is a dangerous place to be a pedestrian.
Each year, the Lone Star State records 2.75 pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 residents, placing it as the 11th-most dangerous place for people traveling on foot, a new study by Pennsylvania-based Wilk Law Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers found.
Texas’ death tally is 36.1% above the national average, according to the report, which is based on an analysis of U.S. Department of Transportation and Census Bureau data. Even though the state accounts for roughly 9% of the U.S. population, it accounts for 10.83% of all pedestrian deaths nationally over the study period — or 1.2 times its expected share.
The study’s authors blame Texas’ dependence on its massive high-speed highway system, its automobile-reliant metro areas and its rapid population growth for its elevated risk of pedestrian deaths.
“These numbers represent real people crossing actual streets,” the report states. “A fatality rate more than five times higher in some states than others is not a natural variation; it reflects policy decisions around road design, speed enforcement, and pedestrian protections that can and should change.”
Texas recorded an average of 827.2 pedestrian deaths annually from 2022 to 2024, according to the study. That average peaked in 2023 at 860.
The 10 safest states for pedestrians are concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest, with fatality rates well below the national average of 2.02, according to researchers.
Minnesota, the safest state overall, has a rate of 0.89 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents, making it 3.1 times safer than Texas. A pedestrian in Houston or Dallas faces a risk more than three times higher than someone walking in Minneapolis, according to the law firm’s number crunching.
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