Pedestrian fatalities one in five traffic deaths in Massachusetts

Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald on Jun 22, 2026

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One in every five traffic-related deaths in Massachusetts in 2025 involved a person walking, a new report from WalkMassachusetts found, calling for action to improve road safety for pedestrians.

“We are heartbroken each year as we learn the stories of people walking who lose their lives in crashes that are often preventable,” said Brendan Kearney, executive director of WalkMassachusetts. “One factor continues to show up again and again: speed. Our streets are still designed in ways that allow people to drive too fast, making it harder for drivers to see and safely yield to people walking.”

Massachusetts recorded 354 total traffic fatalities, about 76 or 21% of which were pedestrians walking, the fifth annual Fatal Pedestrian Crashes in Massachusetts 2025 report found. The number is about even with the 78 pedestrian fatalities in 2024 and down from the all-time high of 101 in 2022.

Older adults and residents in Environmental Justice communities — often lower income neighborhoods — also continued to be disproportionately impacted in 2025, the report stated.

Adults 65 years old or older have been overrepresented every year WalkMassachusetts has released this report, and in 2025, they made up 43% of pedestrian fatal crash victims, while only being 18.7% of the state’s population.

James Fuccione, executive director of Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative, highlighted the “need to prioritize aligning age-friendly efforts with planning, policy, and funding programs.”

More than half of all Massachusetts’s pedestrian fatalities also occurred in the Environmental Justice communities, “reflecting ongoing disparities in roadway conditions and street safety,” WalkMassachusetts stated.

The report pointed to local success in cities like Somerville, which reported a 50% decline in serious-injury crashes and zero traffic fatalities for the third consecutive year. The organization cited the “impact of sustained Vision Zero efforts and traffic-calming investments such as speed humps.”

Pedestrian injuries saw a jump in Boston, from 465 reported in 2024 to 571 last year, though injuries have fallen over the last decade.

WalkMassachusetts called for “renewed momentum” and a restart of the Safety Surge program in Boston, noting that less than two dozen speed humps were installed in 2025, compared to over 600 in 2024.

The report noted the long-term impact of road safety investments in the last decade in Boston including “speed humps, better signal timing, and road diets so a pedestrian does not have to cross multiple vehicle lanes at once.”

Pedestrian fatalities also occurred more frequently in the dark, 68.7% and on city or town controlled streets, 69.7%. Of all fatal crash deaths, 71.1% occurred on on roadways with 25- 35 mph speed limits.

WalkMassachusetts advocated for solutions including their walk audit programs, which are approaching in Melrose and Stoneham, and passage of state legislation including H.3754 allowing municipalities to opt into using speed and red-light cameras and other safety measures.

On Thursday, state officials also announced a “comprehensive statewide initiative to reduce wrong-way driving incidents through a combination of advanced detection technology, enhanced roadway signage, infrastructure improvements and targeted safety upgrades” across over 500 high-risk locations. The roll-out is scheduled to take place over several years and is intended to create what officials called “one of the strongest wrong way prevention and detection programs in the country.”

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