Arizona Pedestrians Were 1.7% of Crashes but 21% of Traffic Deaths in 2024

Pedestrians made up under 2 percent of Arizona's crashes in 2024 but more than one in five of its traffic deaths. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) counted 2,079 pedestrian crashes in 2024, in which 263 people were killed and 1,912 were injured. Those 263 deaths were 21.42% of the 1,228 people killed in all Arizona motor vehicle crashes that year.

The numbers

All figures below come from ADOT's 2024 Motor Vehicle Crash Facts report.

Measure	2023	2024	Change
Pedestrian fatalities	273	263	-3.66%
Pedestrian injuries	1,821	1,912	+5.00%

In 2024, ADOT reported 2,079 pedestrian crashes out of 121,107 reported crashes statewide. By our calculation, that is about 1.7% of all crashes.

How much more deadly is a pedestrian crash?

Dividing deaths by crashes shows how lopsided the outcome is. Statewide, there were 1,228 deaths across 121,107 crashes, or about 10 deaths per 1,000 crashes. In pedestrian crashes, there were 263 deaths across 2,079 crashes, or about 126 deaths per 1,000 crashes. By this measure, a crash involving a pedestrian was roughly 12 times as deadly as the typical Arizona crash.

One caution on method: ADOT counts people killed, and a single crash can kill more than one person, so these ratios are deaths per crash, not the share of crashes that were fatal. The comparison between pedestrian and all crashes uses the same measure on both sides, so the gap between them holds.

A slight decline in deaths, a rise in injuries

Pedestrian deaths fell by 10, from 273 to 263, which follows the broader statewide decline in traffic deaths. But pedestrian injuries rose by 91, from 1,821 to 1,912. The injury increase means the improvement in deaths did not translate into fewer pedestrians being hurt.

Where this fits in the larger picture

The pedestrian figures sit alongside a geographic pattern we covered earlier: crashes outside Arizona's metro areas are far deadlier per crash than those inside them. See Rural Arizona Roads Are Far Deadlier Per Crash Than Urban Ones for the county-level breakdown. Together, the two analyses show that a crash's outcome depends heavily on who and where: people outside a vehicle, and people far from a trauma center, face the worst odds.

What the data does not say

ADOT's crash report records what happened, not why. The figures here do not assign fault in any crash, and they do not establish that drivers, pedestrians, or road design were the cause of the deaths counted. Year-to-year comparisons can also shift as ADOT finalizes reporting.

Methodology

Counts of crashes, deaths, and injuries are taken directly from ADOT's 2024 Crash Facts report, including its Section 7 pedestrian tables and its statewide totals. Ratios and the 1.7% share are our own arithmetic on those published figures: 263 / 2,079, 1,228 / 121,107, and 2,079 / 121,107.