L.A. on pace for more than 300 traffic deaths this year: report

Traffic deaths in the city of Los Angeles show no signs of slowing down and current figures indicate the city is on pace for more than 300 vehicle-related deaths this year.

While 2023 was the deadliest year on L.A. roads in over ten years, this year isn’t much better, according to analysis from independent news organization Crosstown LA.

From the beginning of the year through July 13, there were 170 vehicle-related deaths on L.A. roads — only four shy of last year’s record-setting pace when the city experienced more traffic deaths than homicides.

Traffic Fatalities in Los Angeles from Jan. 1 – July 13

There were 344 traffic fatalities in 2023, the second consecutive year that L.A. exceeded 300 such deaths. If the current pace holds, L.A. will eclipse that number for the third time in as many years.

Crosstown analyzed publicly available data from the Los Angeles Police Department Traffic Division and found that there hadn’t been more than 261 traffic deaths in a single year throughout the entire 2010s.

Pedestrians are becoming a larger portion of those traffic deaths in recent years, with 90 reported so far during the analyzed time frame.

In 2023, L.A. had more pedestrian deaths than any other city in the nation. Crosstown says this year’s pace is “in line” with last year’s.

While there’s no definitive, catch-all explanation for the rise in traffic deaths, multiple theories exist including speeding, poor street design that puts pedestrians in danger and vehicles that are larger and heavier, and therefore, deadlier.

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Police and safety experts have also pointed their fingers at distracted driving, particularly texting.

“An April report by the [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] found that in the United States in 2022 (the latest year available), 3,308 people were killed in crashes involving distracted
drivers. Another 289,000 were injured,” Crosstown wrote it in its online article.

Another cause for concern is the rise in deadly hit-and-run collisions. There were 62 hit-and-run deaths over the analyzed time frame, actually outpacing last year’s total. Today’s hit-and-run total is more than double what was recorded in 2018, Crosstown found.

But the news organization says there may be room for optimism. While the first months of the year contributed to a possible record-setting pace for 2024, May and June saw measurable slowdowns in fatal traffic deaths.

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“In the eight-month stretch from September 2023 through April 2024, there were six months with more than 30 fatalities,” Crosstown wrote. “But that total fell in both May and June, when there were 19 traffic deaths each month.”

To read the full report and learn more about the methodology used by the team at Crosstown, click here.

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