Pedestrians killed in crashes rose by 35% across Massachusetts last year, study finds – The Boston Globe

Of the state’s 351 cities and cities, 60 of them skilled deadly pedestrian crashes in 2022, in contrast with 47 in 2021, the report confirmed.

Boston surpassed all different cities within the state with 12 pedestrian deaths final 12 months. Worcester had the second most pedestrian deaths with seven. Chicopee had the third most with 5, the report confirmed.

“The sharp rise in deadly crashes is extraordinarily troubling,” Brendan Kearney, deputy director of WalkBoston, mentioned in a press release. “Unsafe highway design is creating deadly penalties for communities throughout the Commonwealth. Designing our streets to scale back unlawful rushing — concentrating on essentially the most harmful places first for fixes — will save lives.”

WalkBoston calls on state transportation officers to launch an motion plan for secure streets, and for the Legislature to fund workers and sources in help of eliminating deadly crashes.

“Higher highway design is required throughout the Commonwealth in municipalities of all sizes to sluggish site visitors and make streets safer for individuals strolling,” the report mentioned.

Of the 101 deadly pedestrian crashes, 72 occurred in Environmental Justice neighborhoods, in response to the report.

Federal census statistics decide if a neighborhood meets the Environmental Justice designation, together with an annual family revenue that’s 65 % or much less of the statewide median; individuals of colour comprising no less than 40 % of the inhabitants; and 25 % of households missing English proficiency, in response to the Massachusetts state web site.

“Residents in environmental justice neighborhoods deserve the flexibility to stroll and transfer via their group with out the specter of being hit and killed by somebody working a automobile,” mentioned Tahara Samuel, group planning supervisor at Madison Park Improvement Company.

“The findings within the report that extra individuals have died in deadly crashes this 12 months than final ought to be a get up name for state and municipal leaders that the established order will not be working,” Samuel mentioned. ‘We agree with WalkBoston that the Commonwealth must prioritize defending individuals and designing our streets to make sure secure streets for all.”

The Roxbury Corridors mission is an efficient place to begin for Boston, Samuel mentioned, offering a “probability to listen to from group members on learn how to make investments to repair Warren Road, Malcolm X Boulevard, and Melnea Cass Boulevard.”

In step with final 12 months’s findings, senior residents have been hit and killed at a better fee than some other age group, the report mentioned. Thirty-eight % of final 12 months’s victims have been over the age of 65, but solely 17% of the state inhabitants is over 65.

Sixty % of the deadly pedestrian crashes occurred after darkish and 10 have been hit and run crashes the place the motive force left the scene, the report mentioned.

WalkBoston asks the Massachusetts Division of Transportation to launch an motion plan based mostly on its Strategic Freeway Security Plan that options sections on velocity administration and top-risk places and populations and asks the Legislature to establish funding.

Tonya Alanez might be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Observe her on Twitter @talanez.