RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A new study has found that a Northern Virginia city had the highest pedestrian fatality rate in America over a five-year period.
Personal injury attorneys with Lousiana Laborde Earles Injury Lawyers compiled National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data on fatal crashes across the United States between 2017 and 2021, according to a JournoResearch press release.
Using the NHTSA Motor Vehicle Crash Data Querying and Reporting Tool’s data, they compared the number of pedestrians killed in crashes to the total fatal crashes in each county or city, according to the press release. The study did not include counties or cities with less than 10 total fatalities.
Alexandria, Virginia was found to have the highest rate of pedestrian fatalities of all localities surveyed, with 60% of all fatal crashes in the city involving a pedestrian.
Two other Virginia localities made the list — those being Arlington County at 15th and Harrisonburg City at 20th.
| Rank | City/County, State | Pedestrians Killed in Crashes (2017-21) | Total Fatal Crashes (2017-21) |
Pedestrian Fatality Rate (2017-21) |
| 1 | Alexandria, Virginia | 15 | 25 | 60% |
| 2 | New York, New York | 92 | 178 | 51.69% |
| 3 | Kings, New York | 167 | 327 | 51.07% |
| 4 | San Francisco, California | 76 | 154 | 49.35% |
| 5 | Richmond, New York | 24 | 49 | 48.98% |
| 6 | Queens, New York | 159 | 343 | 46.36% |
| 7 | Essex, New Jersey | 106 | 229 | 46.29% |
| 8 | Hudson, New Jersey | 56 | 121 | 46.28% |
| 9 | Union, New Jersey | 65 | 144 | 45.14% |
| 10 | Bergen, New Jersey | 79 | 179 | 44.13% |
| 11 | Bronx, New York | 88 | 207 | 42.51% |
| 12 | Suffolk, Massachusets | 49 | 124 | 39.52% |
| 13 | Dare, North Carolina | 7 | 18 | 38.89% |
| 14 | Camden, New Jersey | 94 | 243 | 38.68% |
| 15 | Arlington, Virginia | 10 | 26 | 38.46% |
| 16 | Anchorage, Alaska | 38 | 99 | 38.38% |
| 17 | Clayton, Georgia | 92 | 243 | 37.86% |
| 18 | Mercer, New Jersey | 51 | 136 | 37.50% |
| 19 | Baltimore, Maryland | 89 | 243 | 36.63% |
| 10 | Harrisonburg, Virginia | 4 | 11 | 36.36% |
