More pedestrians were reported injured in Dallas traffic crashes in 2023 than last year and the final tally will likely be near pre-pandemic numbers, state data shows.
According to preliminary crash data from the Texas Department of Transportation as of Dec. 20, 661 pedestrians have been hurt in crashes in Dallas. That’s up from 620 in 2022, 531 in 2021 and 540 in 2020. There were 695 in 2019, the data shows.
Dallas is 18 months into a Vision Zero plan, a series of strategies meant to hit goals by 2030 of no traffic-related deaths and a 50% reduction in serious injuries. More than 45 cities nationwide including Houston, San Antonio and Austin, as well as others around the world, have taken similar road safety pledges. The initiative started in the late ‘90s in Sweden.
Overall, city crash numbers this year appear to show a step forward, with decreases in total accidents and deaths compared to 2022, according to state data. But the increases in pedestrian injuries loom as elected officials are calling for more visible progress toward keeping people safe.
In total, 181 drivers, passengers, bicyclists and pedestrians have died on Dallas streets this year and another 14,159 have been injured.
Although crashes involving pedestrians in Dallas made up almost 2% of the 29,786 total, pedestrians made up 38% of the people killed and nearly 47% of the injuries, state data shows.
Jennifer Chapa lives in the Dallas Love Field area near Cherrywood Park, a few blocks from Maple Avenue. A mile-and-a-half stretch of that road between Hudnall Street and Oak Lawn Avenue is one city officials identified in the Vision Zero plan last year as having the highest number of fatal and severe injury crashes involving pedestrians.
“I don’t know if it can be eliminated altogether,” she said. “It’s a solution worthy to strive for, but I think we all want to see more about the logistics from the city on how exactly we can reach this goal.”
Chapa said drivers routinely speed in the area and vehicles have careened into poles and driven into an apartment building sign. She said she has tried to get speed bumps installed at least three times.
In recent weeks, Chapa was awoken by a loud bang and went outside fearing it could have been a small explosion. She discovered her neighborhood bathed in the blue and red lights of Dallas police cars and road flares after a crash.
“It’s been a mess,” said Chapa, president of the Maple Lawn Neighborhood Association. “It’s been dangerous.”
Chapa pointed to a crash in March 2022 when a 27-year-old man was killed after being hit on Hudnall Street near Maple Avenue by a suspected drunk driver. According to a Dallas police arrest warrant affidavit, Manalik’i Wilson was crossing Hudnall Street a little after 1:30 a.m. when he was hit by a Toyota Tacoma driven by Richard Rojas.
Wilson died at Parkland Hospital from blunt force trauma three hours after being hit, the affidavit said. Rojas had a blood alcohol concentration of .22, almost three times the .08 legal limit, the document says. Rojas, now 29, is accused of intoxicated manslaughter with a vehicle. The legal case is ongoing.
Dangerous roads rank high nationwide
Dallas, the ninth-largest city in the country, ranks high among dangerous roads nationwide.
According to the most recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Dallas had the second-highest rate of pedestrian deaths among the 20 largest cities in the U.S. in 2021, with 4.73 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people. Only Phoenix had a higher rate, at 6.03.
Dallas also ranked seventh in total road fatalities among cities with a population of at least 50,000 people, trailing Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York, Memphis and Chicago, according to the data.
Dallas City Council member Jesse Moreno, who represents areas that include the high-crash section of Maple Avenue, said he felt it was “embarrassing” for Dallas to be in the conversation of leading the nation in pedestrian deaths.
“We have a good plan in place,” said Moreno referring to Dallas’ Vision Zero action plan. “But the implementation part has been very frustrating on how slow things have been moving.”
Dallas committed to eliminating traffic fatalities and reducing injuries through Vision Zero in 2019 but didn’t have a road map on how to get there until June 2022.
The city’s plans include improving road and sidewalk infrastructure, and tracking yearly progress on efforts to reduce the number of fatal and serious crashes.
City officials told council members in a November memo that out of 40 action items for 2023, only nine had been done. Another seven — including creating metrics for evaluating safety projects and adopting new policies, procedures and standards related to city street designs — haven’t been started. The other 24 items, like conducting a citywide review of speed limits and installing new or improved pedestrian crossings at problem areas such as along Maple Avenue and on Great Trinity Forest Way, were in progress.
Among the items completed were starting the safety evaluations for areas with high injuries, maintaining street markings like crosswalks, and putting in speed bumps or raised crosswalks in at least four locations.
“If the goal is to complete this by the end of the year, I’m wondering why we are where we are,” City Council member Jaime Resendez said during a Nov. 7 committee meeting.
In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Moreno highlighted as an example that the City Council in September approved the city paying engineering consultant firm Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. close to $750,000 to provide a study evaluating pedestrian accessibility and traffic safety along Maple Avenue as well as Skillman Street and South Beacon Street/Graham Avenue in East Dallas.
All three areas have been identified as having a disproportionately high rate of vehicle crashes. The study is estimated to be done in October 2024.
Moreno said city officials held meetings with residents in the Maple Avenue area roughly a year ago where they were presented with plans of new bike lanes, along with more traffic and pedestrian signals to help increase safety. But he said he is concerned the consultant study will delay those plans.
He said he believes several stretches of Maple Avenue without traffic signals or signs, as well as a number of undeveloped lots, inadvertently encourage people to speed.
When asked if he felt confident Dallas could hit its goal of zero traffic-related deaths by 2030 and heavily reduce severe injury accidents, Moreno said, “No.”
“I think it’s achievable, but we have to change our practices,” the council member said. “We have to be a lot more proactive.”
Trending in the right direction
Preliminary 2023 state data shows the numbers overall trending in the right direction.
The data shows around 4,200 fewer total crashes than last year, along with almost 1,000 fewer crashes where people were injured, 39 fewer fatal traffic accidents, 47 fewer people killed, and more than 1,300 fewer injuries, according to TxDOT’s Crash Records Information System as of Dec. 20.
There were decreases in all of the same stats for Dallas crashes involving pedestrians except in the number of injuries, which rose from 620 in 2022 to 661 as of Dec. 20, state records show.
Dallas Police Major Mark Villarreal told The News he believes the way roads are designed, high speed limits and SUVs and trucks being popular to drive contribute to traffic deaths and severe injury crashes in Dallas.
“It’s harder for drivers to see pedestrians when they’re higher up in these vehicles,” said Villarreal, who is the division commander for DPD’s tactical operations division, which includes overseeing the traffic unit.
He said he hadn’t yet fully reviewed and analyzed city crash data from 2022 to 2023, but described what he had seen as encouraging. He said the police department has focused on increasing traffic enforcement in areas with high numbers of crashes, like along Great Trinity Forest Way in southern Dallas. He said they’re also trying to do more to educate motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and other road users through social media and in-person interactions. He said the department has received federal grant money to supplement enforcement.
More will have to be done if Dallas wants to get closer to the Vision Zero goal, Villarreal said.
“I think engineering in the future — the design of vehicles and the design of roadways — there’s going to have to be discussions related to that to have some measurable success with fatalities,” he said.
Dallas transportation officials didn’t respond to interview requests.
Catherine Cuellar, the city’s communications, outreach and marketing director, sent a statement attributed to the transportation department saying the City Council would be briefed about the Vision Zero initiative in early 2024.
“Corridor studies, or assessments of potential safety improvements, are in progress or in the process of being approved for high-injury networks — locations that experience high crash casualties,” the statement said. “Public meetings on these study results will begin in 2024.”
Some federal help is coming to make another high-crash area in the city safer. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Dec. 13 that Dallas would be getting a nearly $22 million grant to help improve crosswalks, lighting, traffic signals and other upgrades along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Jay Blazek Crossley, who helps lead the advocacy group Vision Zero Texas, said he believed Dallas’ action plan appeared to be a “good first go” at tackling road safety. After reviewing the city’s 2022 report and 2023 progress memo, Crossley said he found it promising that the city is using data to target areas where people are hurt the most and incorporating help from departments other than transportation.
He expressed concern that there are no performance measures available for the public to see progress and that more city departments aren’t involved. He noted not seeing anything that took input from zoning and sanitation.
“Planning and zoning significantly impacts street safety and trash collection workers drive all over the city,” said Crossley. “I think nearly every city department should have a role in this.”
Crossley said Dallas will need a lot of help to eliminate traffic deaths by 2030. There are several state-controlled roads that run through the city where aspects like speed limits can’t be changed by Dallas. And the behaviors and expectations of drivers will also have to change, he said.
“You’re going to have to convince a lot of people to give up driving fast and sitting in traffic longer for this to work,” Crossley said, “and most people don’t like change.”
