Seattle Traffic Deaths Hit 16-Year High: Report

SEATTLE, WA — Seattle's seven-year-old initiative to eliminate traffic deaths could use some fine-tuning, according to a new Seattle Department of Transportation report presented to City Hall Tuesday.

The report, "Vision Zero: Designing a Safe System," found that Seattle had 30 traffic deaths in 2021, a 16-year-high. Since 2015, more than 175 people have died and 1,200 people have been injured in traffic crashes in Seattle, according to the department.

The city started the Vision Zero program in 2015 as a citywide effort to eliminate serious injuries and deaths from crashes.

The report offered research and statistics about the crashes and suggestions about how the city can make progress on its commitment to end traffic deaths and serious injuries on Seattle streets by 2030.

"We're going in the wrong direction. Crashes are going up instead of down, despite it being this concept for a long time," Anna Zivarts with Disability Rights Washington told KING 5.

The city noted that over the last seven years, people walking, rolling and biking were involved in 7 percent of total crashes, but represented 61 percent of fatalities, according to the report.

Since 2015, A total of 40 percent of fatal crashes occurred at intersections with signals, and more than 80 percent of fatal incidents involved cyclists in stretches with no bike lanes.

In the fatal crashes that killed or seriously injured people since 2015, researchers discovered the average age of the victim was 52 and that Black people were disproportionately affected. Meanwhile, people experiencing homelessness made up 27 percent of deaths in 2021.

Nearly half of all fatal crashes in the last three years occurred in District 2, the area that includes notorious spots such as Fourth Avenue and Holgate Street in SODO and Rainier Avenue and 23rd Avenue, according to KING 5.

The city offered suggestions to improve safety, including reducing speed limits, adding signals that give pedestrians and bicyclists a three- to seven-second head start over cars and prioritizing safety in areas of highest need.

The transportation department also reported a need to expand initiatives such as education programs about traffic and pedestrian safety and partnerships with agencies and community organizations that help to build awareness about safety throughout the city.

The department added that achieving isafety goals required a paradigm shift in the city.

"We must move toward prioritizing the safe movement of human beings, rather than the fast movement of vehicles," the department said in its report.