Recent estimates from the University of New Mexico show a decline, albeit a small one, in the number of pedestrians killed along New Mexico roads in 2025 compared to the previous four years.
New Mexico’s pedestrian fatality rate — roughly 5 per 100,000 residents — has been the nation’s highest for nearly a decade, according to federal data. But a new report from the Governors Highway Safety Association, as well as recent, preliminary data from UNM researchers, show signs that the rate is decreasing.
The Governors Highway Safety Association report released last week compiled pedestrian fatality figures from all 50 states from the first six months of 2025. The report found drivers struck and killed 27 pedestrians along New Mexico roads between January and June last year, which represents a decline of almost half from the same period the previous year.
New Mexico’s sharp decline stood among the nation’s highest and contributed to an 11% reduction nationwide, according to the report.
Shannon Glendenning, director of the Traffic Safety Division at the New Mexico Department of Transportation, told Source NM that the reduction was so dramatic that she did “a double-take” when she compiled statistics for the national report.
“I always put the caveat that this is preliminary information, where you submit the report for the first half of the year, that these numbers might go back up, or something’s going to come out of the woodwork,” she said Wednesday. “And they didn’t, which is fantastic.”
In addition to the national report that covers the first half of 2025, UNM researchers recently calculated preliminary pedestrian death figures across the entire year. While the UNM data shows that the number of deaths did increase in the second half of 2025, the year ended with 89 pedestrians killed in 2025, which is the lowest number since 2021.
Vehicles have struck and killed more than 100 people each year in New Mexico since 2021, apart from 2022, in which 94 pedestrians were killed, according to the UNM data.
Even with the decline, Glendenning said that she still expects the state’s pedestrian fatality rate, which is double the national average, to be “near the top” of national rankings. Still, she said a decline, even a small one, shows the state is heading in the right direction.
Glendenning also could not point to a singular state intervention that might be reducing pedestrian deaths. Instead, she said the declines come as a result of the state adopting a comprehensive response to pedestrian deaths, known as the Safe System approach.
The “holistic” approach calls for transportation officials to implement multiple layers of redundancy in roadway infrastructure, like installing rumble strips alongside guardrails, to counteract inevitable driver mistakes.
Central to the approach, Glendenning said, is recognizing that “zero” is the only acceptable number of pedestrian fatalities. The state codified its approach into the 2021 Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, which, among other reforms, called for the installation of “hybrid beacons,” which are flashing lights that warn drivers when a pedestrian enters a crosswalk.
Two of those beacons have been installed on state-owned roads, one in Hobbs and one in Lovington, Glendenning said, with several more on the way. Albuquerque and other cities have also installed the equipment along dangerous local roads.
“We can’t say there’s any one reason or pedestrian fatalities went down,” she said. “There’s so many pieces moving in this system that it can’t just be like, ‘This is what solved it.’”
