Statewide statistics show deadly traffic incidents are at a six-year low as of 2025. Inside of that, the number of pedestrians who die after getting hit by a car has remained consistent across Utah for the last few years.
According to data from Zero Fatalities, a state-led partnership with the Utah Department of Transportation and Department of Public Safety, there's been a statewide average of 45 pedestrian deaths each year over the last five years.
Cities and towns that have lowered the speed limit in high-risk areas and residential streets have seen a decrease in pedestrian fatalities.
In 2022, Sweet Streets — an advocacy group focused on pedestrian safety — urged Salt Lake City leaders to lower speed limits to 20 miles per hour in areas with high foot traffic. The city council agreed.
The group uses data they collect from Salt Lake City Police Department reports. It shows that in 2023, the year the city lowered the speed limit, the number of pedestrians killed on Salt Lake City streets dropped from 22 to 14. Since then, the average number of deaths has been 13.
Sweet Streets treasurer Julian Jurkoic said they have the goal of zero deaths. To him, it's doable– he pointed to European cities like Helsinki, Finland, and Oslo, Norway. Those cities have higher populations than Salt Lake and have recorded 12-month stints without a pedestrian death.
According to an August Forbes article about the Nordic phenomenon, city design was key to lowering road incidents. More walkways and bike lanes, tighter streets and more pedestrian crossings were some of the infrastructure changes that helped reduce pedestrian deaths.
In Utah, Jurkoic believes speeding is a key culprit that contributes to deaths on the road. Data from Zero Fatalities supports his theory and shows that in 2025, speed and aggressive driving were the top behavioural factors associated with deaths on Utah roads.
“Nobody goes 30 where it says 30, right?” he said, explaining that many city streets like Redwood Road (also known as State Route 68) are designed for traveling faster than the speed limit.
According to Sweet Streets data, in 2025, three out of 15 deaths were recorded on Redwood Road, the most of any street in Salt Lake County.
He said Salt Lake City is on the right track. He uses 2100 South as an example. Crews recently finished construction on the Sugar House main thoroughfare, upgrading crosswalks and adding a multi-use path.
“I challenge any of you to go drive on 21st South, right now, on the new part of it that they did between 700 East and like 1300 East,” he said. “Go drive that and see if you speed, because I don't think you will, because the road has been designed to slow you down.”
In southernUtah, Moab took a similar approach. It's a little trickier for the tourist town to improve its road safety, because Main Street doubles as State Highway 191– a major corridor for goods and services traveling through the southeast corner of Utah. The highway is under UDOT’s jurisdiction, not the city council.
However, after a 2024 citizen report pointed out the deadly relationship between cars and people on the town's Main Street and provided data, UDOT lowered the speed limit on the outskirts of town by up to 15 mph. It was reduced by 5 mph leading into the town core. The speed limit in downtown Moab remains 30 mph. Kevin Dwyer helped write the report and said he’s noticed the change. There had been 15 fatalities in a decade along the stretch of road, including Moab’s Main Street. Dwyer explained that now it's been “almost 16 months since the last fatality on that stretch.”
Dwyer believes there's still more to be done in downtown Moab though.
“From the perspective of the folks that I was working with on this, we also wanted to see many more enhanced crosswalks,” he said. “Crosswalks that would allow pedestrians to get across these busy highway main streets.”
He said he often sees pedestrians jaywalking because crosswalks are a block or more away.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
