In California, 880 Pedestrians a Year Are Killed Walking After Dark, Making It the Seventh Deadliest State in America for Nighttime Pedestrian Fatalities

KEY TAKEAWAYS - 

•   California's nighttime pedestrian fatality rate of 2.24 per 100,000 residents is the seventh highest of any state, running 1.4 times the national average (1.60) and 4.8 times the rate of the safest state, Iowa (0.47).

•   With 4,399 total nighttime pedestrian deaths from 2020 to 2024 and an annual average of 879.8, California records the highest absolute count of nighttime pedestrian fatalities of any state in the nation by a wide margin, more than all nine other top-10 states combined except Florida.

•   California's rate exceeds two of its three bordering states, leading Nevada by 0.18 rate points and Oregon by 0.58, while trailing only neighboring Arizona — the fourth-ranked state nationally — by 0.46 rate points.

California's scale makes its nighttime pedestrian crisis unlike any other state's. From the dense urban grid of Los Angeles — where pedestrian deaths are concentrated along high-speed arterials that cut through low-income neighborhoods — to the Central Valley's rural highways, the Bay Area's complex intersection of transit and traffic, and San Diego's sprawling suburban connectors, the state's sheer size means that the conditions producing nighttime pedestrian fatalities play out across dozens of distinct environments simultaneously. No single road type or city tells the full story. What the numbers show, across all of them, is a rate that ranks seventh in the nation and a raw toll that stands alone.

An analysis by Beck & Beck examined NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data for all 50 states from 2020 to 2024, ranking each state by its average annual nighttime pedestrian fatality rate per 100,000 residents using U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.

CALIFORNIA AT A GLANCE: NIGHTTIME PEDESTRIAN FATALITY PROFILE

AMERICA'S 10 MOST DANGEROUS STATES FOR PEDESTRIANS AFTER DARK

California ranks seventh nationally with a nighttime pedestrian fatality rate of 2.24 per 100,000, sitting 0.32 rate points below sixth-ranked Mississippi (2.56) and just 0.03 rate points above eighth-ranked Georgia (2.21). These 10 states together account for 45.0% of all nighttime pedestrian deaths nationwide, and California's contribution to that total in absolute terms is unmatched — 879.8 deaths per year from a single state, a volume that reflects both an elevated rate and the largest state population in the country at nearly 40 million residents.

CALIFORNIA VS. BORDERING STATES: NIGHTTIME PEDESTRIAN FATALITY RATES

California's rate leads two of its three bordering states, outpacing Nevada by 0.18 rate points and Oregon by 0.58. The lone exception is Arizona, which ranks fourth nationally at 2.70 per 100,000 and sits 0.46 rate points above California. 

CALIFORNIA VS. THE 10 SAFEST STATES FOR PEDESTRIANS AFTER DARK

California alone averages 879.8 nighttime pedestrian deaths per year — more than five times the combined annual total of all 10 safest states (173.6). Its rate of 2.24 per 100,000 is 4.8 times that of the safest state, Iowa, which records just 15.0 deaths annually. Massachusetts, with a population of seven million — less than a fifth of California's — records just 41.6 nighttime pedestrian deaths per year at a rate of 0.59, demonstrating that a large, urbanized coastal state is not inherently destined for a high nighttime pedestrian fatality rate. The gap between California and Massachusetts stands at 1.65 rate points and 838 deaths per year in absolute terms.

METHODOLOGY

Pedestrian fatality data were extracted from NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for all 50 U.S. states covering 2020 to 2024. For each state, average annual nighttime pedestrian fatalities were calculated across the five years, and nighttime fatality rates per 100,000 residents were computed using the formula: (Average Annual Nighttime Pedestrian Fatalities / Average Annual State Population) x 100,000. Population figures were sourced from U.S. Census Bureau estimates. States were ranked from highest to lowest nighttime fatality rate per 100,000 residents. FARS classifies crashes by light conditions at the time of the crash, with "nighttime" encompassing all dark conditions regardless of artificial lighting. The analysis does not account for pedestrian exposure, roadway design, lighting infrastructure, vehicle speed, or alcohol involvement. Small-population states may show greater year-to-year volatility due to low absolute fatality counts, and the 2024 FARS data may be preliminary and subject to revision by NHTSA.

DATA SOURCES

NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)

https://cdan.dot.gov/query 

U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates

https://www.census.gov 

Research Dataset:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zxknCoviETsAQ5aNkoPWVZg34phN7fJTUJahNySJYdM/edit?gid=0#gid=0 

Study by:

https://becklawmo.com/ 

ABOUT BECK & BECK

Beck & Beck is a Missouri-based personal injury law firm that exclusively handles vehicle accident cases across the state, including motorcycle and car crash cases. The firm guides clients through the full recovery process, from injury claim evaluation and medical care coordination to insurance negotiations and accident-related litigation.

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