The City of Angels, A Pedestrian Death Capital

Pedestrian Death Capital: Los Angeles, California

In 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the City of Angels took second place in the entirety of American for being a pedestrian death capital.

The NHTSA conducted and released a statistical review for big-city car crashes and accident, and discovered that Los Angeles came in second, just behind of New York, for the number of pedestrians that were killed by vehicles during that year. 99 people whose lives were cut short due to car accidents.

The NHTSA report further showed that, while nationwide pedestrian deaths comprised only 14% of fatalities that happened in car accident, Los Angeles stood out from the rest by having pedestrian deaths account for an appalling 41% of deaths caused by car accidents.

Perhaps L.A.’s appalling statistics regarding pedestrian deaths in car accidents should not be too surprising however as California in general took first place in having the highest number of car accident caused pedestrian fatalities, capping at 612 people, who either struck dead by a car or the car accident cause injuries so severe that it resulted in their deaths. In L.A. in particular, hit-and-run car accidents seem to play a large part in the pedestrian deaths. In fact, in 2012, there was a new state legislation passed that increased the statute of limitations on hit-and-run cases.