New IDOT crash data shows drop in traffic deaths but pedestrian fatalities spiking

Fatal vehicle crashes in 2024 dipped to their lowest levels since 2020 across Illinois but pedestrian deaths remain disturbingly high, new Illinois Department of Transportation data shows.

IDOT reported 1,103 fatal traffic crashes last year that killed 1,196 people, a decline of about 3.5% from 2023.

However, 219 fatal pedestrian-involved crashes occurred in 2024, a 9.5% spike from the 200 in 2023.

“Since 2010, there has been nationally a huge increase in the number of people killed while walking,” the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s Victoria Barrett said.

“It’s really tragic to me that walking is unsafe or that it could be perceived as unsafe.”

In Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties, pedestrian crash fatalities totaled 144 last year, a 6.7% rise from 135 in 2023.

IDOT cautions that the 2024 data, reviewed by the Daily Herald last week, is preliminary and could change before finalized.

Asked to explain the trend, CMAP Senior Transportation Planner Barrett cited Insurance Institute for Highway Safety research that found SUVs, pickups and vans with hood heights greater than 40 inches are about 45% more likely to cause pedestrian deaths in crashes than vehicles with shorter hood heights. Blunt, vertical front ends also increase risks.

“In the ’70s, when the cars were all sedans and the hoods were low to the ground, when a pedestrian was struck or a bicyclist … you’d break a leg and you’d roll over the top of the hood and probably out of the travel path of the car,” Barrett said.

Now with SUVs and vans, “they’re taller. They hit pedestrians in their torso, which is where all the vital organs are, or their head,” she explained.

“All of our safety ratings in America are met by ensuring the safety of people inside the vehicle. If you’re driving that car, maybe you’re safer, but what are the risks you’re putting on people in smaller cars, in lighter cars or people who are not driving at all?”

Barrett and Active Transportation Alliance Advocacy Manager Alex Perez also listed distracted driving, COVID-19-era bad habits such as speeding, and traffic enforcement drop-off as contributors to collisions.

“Driving patterns have evolved over the pandemic where there was no traffic on the roads for (some) days, there’s no enforcement on the roads, and no one was pulled over speeding,” Perez said.

Street design also plays a role with busy suburban corridors such as North Avenue — multilane, fast-flowing intersections that are problematic at best for pedestrians and cyclists, he added.

Northwestern University transportation expert Professor Ian Savage notes the proportion of Illinois cyclist and pedestrian fatalities increased in 2021 as the pandemic raged and has not reverted back to pre-COVID levels. For example, combined pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in 2019 were 18.3% of total deaths. That rose to 18.7% in 2021 and hit 21.2% last year, he said.

“Perhaps the biggest headline is that the pedestrian/pedalcyclist counts remain stubbornly high. This has been going on for 15 years or more, but seems to have got much worse since the pandemic,” Savage said.

You should know

How to protect pedestrians?

• IDOT recently completed a Vulnerable Road User Safety Assessment, which shows dangerous locations and identifies crash trends.

“One fatality is one too many,” IDOT Communications Director Guy Tridgell said. “The department in recent years has focused much more time and energy than ever to identify new tools to prioritize vulnerable road user safety, which includes bicyclists and pedestrians.”

• CMAP officials with Cook and the collar counties are developing a Safe Travel for All program to reduce traffic deaths and injuries in the metro area. Cook hosts an open house on the subject from 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 22, at the Centre of Elgin, 100 Symphony Way. For information, visit engage.cmap.illinois.gov/hub-page/safetravelforall.

One more thing

Fatal traffic collisions involving cyclists declined from 41 in 2023 to 35 in 2024, a 14.6% decrease, but still higher than the seven-year average of 30.

Other significant drops in fatal crashes occurred in work zones — sinking from 24 in 2023 to 13 in 2024 — and in motorcycle collisions, decreasing from 162 to 147 year over year, a 9.3% difference.