AZ Law Now · Data Report · Arizona, 2000-2024
Arizona's Pedestrian Toll
We measured 25 years of Arizona's road deaths, not one. We counted every pedestrian killed from 2000 through 2024 and found the pattern the yearly headlines miss: a toll that held flat for 15 years, then bent sharply upward after 2014. Here is when it broke, where people die, and which road outranks them all.
pedestrians killed walking in Arizona, 2000 to 2024.
+85% more in the last five years of the window than the first five
The state reports one year at a time. We read 25. For 15 years Arizona's pedestrian toll barely moved, around 140 people killed on foot a year.
After 2014 it nearly doubled. Here is what the long record says, finding by finding, with every number you can copy and use.
Computed · person-level by year
Flat for 15 years, then it nearly doubled
+85% last five years of the window vs the first five
For most of this century, Arizona's pedestrian toll did not move. From 2000 through 2014 it held in a narrow band, around 140 people killed on foot each year.
The first five years of the window counted 695 pedestrians killed. The five years a decade later, 2010 to 2014, counted 707. Fifteen years apart, essentially the same number.
Then it broke. After 2014 the line bends sharply upward: 155 killed in 2015, 186 in 2016, 213 in 2017, climbing to a peak of 297 in 2022.
The last five years of the window, 2020 to 2024, counted 1,289 pedestrians killed, 85 percent above the first five.
The yearly headlines miss this because they read one year at a time. Read 25 years at once and the inflection is unmistakable: something changed on Arizona's roads after 2014, and people on foot have been paying for it since.
Computed · light condition
Seven in ten died in the dark
72.4% of pedestrians killed died in darkness
Darkness is the single biggest condition behind these deaths. Of the 4,409 pedestrians killed from 2000 through 2024, 3,191 died in the dark.
That is 72.4 percent, computed from the light condition recorded on each fatal crash. When the sun is down, the walker disappears, and the time a driver has to react collapses.
The dark majority holds across the whole record, and it has held for 25 years. The live 2024 investigation found the same pattern in a single recent year. Two windows, one finding: most pedestrians killed in Arizona die after dark.
Computed · lighting present
Most of them died where the lights were on
2,035 killed in the dark on roads that had streetlights on
It is easy to assume the dark deaths happen on unlit back roads. The record says the opposite.
Of the pedestrians killed in darkness, 2,035 died on roads that had streetlights on, against 994 on dark, unlighted roads. More than twice as many people died under working streetlights as died in the unlit dark.
That flips the easy fix on its head. A streetlight is not a finish line.
When most of the dark deaths happen on lit roads, the light is not the missing piece, the rest of the design is: how far apart the safe crossings are, how wide the road is, how fast the traffic moves, and whether a person on foot has anywhere safe to be.
Lighting helps. On its own, it is nowhere near enough.
Computed · corridor
One road outranks every other
118 pedestrians killed on Indian School Road
The deaths are not spread evenly, and one road carries more than any other. Across 25 years, Indian School Road through West Phoenix is the deadliest pedestrian corridor in the metro area: 118 pedestrians killed along its length, more than on any other road in Maricopa County.
The next-deadliest arterials trail well behind.
This is a corridor problem, not a single-corner problem. The deaths run the length of Indian School Road as it crosses West Phoenix, year after year, rather than spiking at one intersection.
It is a wide, fast, heavily walked arterial through neighborhoods that depend on walking, and it has carried a toll the rest of the city has not.
We name the road and the pattern. We do not print exact cross-streets, because at the block level the record is not precise enough to call a single corner as fact.
Computed · county share
Nearly six in ten happen in Maricopa County
58.9% of pedestrians killed died in Maricopa County
This is a metro-Phoenix crisis. Of the 4,409 pedestrians killed statewide, 2,598 died in Maricopa County, 58.9 percent of the state's total.
Pima County, anchored by Tucson, is a distant second at 15.6 percent. No other county reaches 5 percent. The danger tracks where Arizonans actually live, walk, and cross.
The concentration is not new and it is not narrowing. Maricopa has carried close to six in ten of Arizona's pedestrian deaths across the whole 25-year window.
Arizona also ranks among the deadliest states in the country for people on foot. For the per-capita rate behind that, see the live 2024 investigation, which carries the GHSA figure. We did not compute a per-capita rate ourselves, so we point you to the source that did.
Pedestrians killed by county
| Rank | County | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maricopa (Phoenix) | 58.9% |
| 2 | Pima (Tucson) | 15.6% |
| 3 | Pinal | 4.0% |
| 4 | Coconino | 3.8% |
| 5 | Yavapai | 3.5% |
Share of all 4,409 Arizona pedestrians killed, by county of death, NHTSA FARS 2000 to 2024, computed by AZ Law Now. This is a person-level count, the same measure used throughout this report: each row is pedestrians killed in that county, not crashes. Maricopa County alone accounts for nearly six in ten, and the top two counties, Maricopa and Pima, together carry almost three-quarters of the state's pedestrian deaths.
The receipts
Sources and method
Every count, share, trend, light-condition, county, and corridor figure on this page is computed by AZ Law Now from the NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2000 to 2024, the federal record of every traffic death.
The whole page is one measure. "Pedestrians killed" is a person-level count, the federal definition of a pedestrian who died, and the county shares and the deadliest-road figure count pedestrians killed too, not crashes. The same queries reproduce our earlier 15-year figures exactly, which is how we validate the method.
Light condition is taken from the field recorded on each fatal crash. "In the dark" means the crash was coded dark, and within the dark we separate roads that had streetlights on from unlit roads.
Indian School Road is the deadliest pedestrian road in metro Phoenix across the full window. We name the road and the West Phoenix corridor, not exact intersections, because at the block level the record is not precise enough to call a single corner as fact.
Where we cite Arizona's national rank or per-capita rate, we attribute it to GHSA and the live 2024 investigation, because we did not compute a per-capita rate from FARS. The single-year 2024 figures in that investigation are ADOT counts, and we never blend an ADOT count and a FARS count in one claim.
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2025). Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2000 to 2024 national file [Data set]. U.S. Department of Transportation. nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars
- Arizona Department of Transportation. (2025). 2024 Motor Vehicle Crash Facts for the State of Arizona. azdot.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/2024-Crash-Facts.pdf
- Governors Highway Safety Association. (2025). Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State. ghsa.org/resource-hub/pedestrian-traffic-fatalities-2024-data
- City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department. (2022). Road Safety Action Plan (Vision Zero), adopted September 7, 2022. phoenix.gov/streets/roadsafety
Questions, answered
Frequently asked
How many pedestrians have been killed in Arizona?
4,409 pedestrians were killed walking in Arizona from 2000 to 2024, based on our analysis of the NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System. That is one in six of all Arizona road deaths over the same 25 years. The toll held flat for the first 15 years, then climbed sharply: 250 pedestrians were killed in 2024 alone, against around 140 a year before 2015.
Are pedestrian deaths in Arizona getting worse?
Yes, sharply, and the change is recent. Arizona's pedestrian toll held flat from 2000 through 2014, around 140 deaths a year. After 2014 it climbed to a peak of 297 in 2022. The last five years of the window run 85 percent above the first five, 1,289 pedestrians killed from 2020 to 2024 against 695 from 2000 to 2004.
What time of day do most Arizona pedestrian deaths happen?
In the dark. 72.4 percent of the 4,409 pedestrians killed in Arizona from 2000 to 2024 died in darkness. And it is mostly not unlit roads: 2,035 of those dark deaths happened on streets that had the lights on, more than twice the number who died on dark, unlighted roads. That points past the streetlight to the rest of the road design.
Where in Arizona are pedestrians most at risk?
In metro Phoenix. Maricopa County accounts for 58.9 percent of all Arizona pedestrian deaths over 25 years, with Pima County a distant second. One road stands out: Indian School Road through West Phoenix, where 118 pedestrians were killed, more than on any other road in the county.
Why are Arizona roads so deadly for people on foot?
It is the road, not just the walker. Most deaths happen after dark, many on wide, fast arterials, and most of the dark deaths occur where streetlights are already on. Arizona ranks among the deadliest states in the country for pedestrians. The pattern points to road design: crossing distance, traffic speed, and where it is safe to walk.
Hit while walking in Arizona?
A road's documented crash history can be part of your case. Our Arizona pedestrian crash guide breaks down where the deaths concentrate, the data behind them, and what to do next.
Read the Arizona pedestrian crash guide