Pedestrian deaths rising across NM

New Mexico is the deadliest state for pedestrians, according to rankings by the Governors Highway Safety Association.

It’s been that way since 2016, and the most recent GHSA preliminary report, released late last month, has New Mexico ranked No. 1 for 2023 as well.

The Albuquerque area was deadlier than ever for those on foot last year, with drivers striking and killing a record 56 people and surpassing the previous record of 49 in 2021.

And Clovis is trending with the state’s largest city.

Clovis Police Department records show three pedestrians were killed in vehicle collisions between 2013 and 2018. Since then, nine pedestrians have died, including five in the past 12 months.

Those numbers do not include the area’s most recent pedestrian death, a 23-year-old Farwell man running for physical fitness in the 200 block of Curry Road 10 northwest of Texico. That happened Feb. 28.

Mayor Tim Keller told reporters at a late-February news conference that Albuquerque is on pace for 80 people to be fatally struck by a driver this year.

“Just so folks are aware of how acute and how real this is, seven people have already lost their lives crossing the street between Louisiana and Eubank, on Central,” he said, referencing Albuquerque’s most deadly stretch of road.

GHSA reports 3,373 pedestrians in the United States were killed in motor vehicle collisions between January and June of last year.

“That’s a decline of about 150 pedestrian deaths from the prior year, but still over 400 more than the same period in 2019,” National Public Radio reported on its website.

Reasons for the deadly hike range from police cutting back on traffic enforcement during the pandemic to a trend toward larger vehicles, including SUVs and pickup trucks.

Clovis Police Chief Roy Rice cites a more fundamental cause.

“It appears as though we as pedestrians have forgotten all we have been told about pedestrian safety when we were growing up: STOP and look both ways and then back to the left again before crossing the roadway,” he wrote in an email to The News last week.

“Whether it’s because the person has a distraction or not paying attention when they walk out in front of cars, I have no idea.”

But Rice said he has recently seen joggers with ear pieces listening to music or podcasts and “aren’t able to hear anything around them.

“I have had more than one person step out in front of me and I was able to stop. They weren’t even aware, or at least they didn’t act like they even saw me stop, and continued on their way,” he said.

Some states have much higher rates of pedestrian deaths than others, records show, with states in the South and Southwest having some of the worst.

TheHill.com reported New Mexico saw 4.4 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents in 2022, tops in the nation. Arizona was next at 4.2, followed by Florida (3.7), Louisiana (3.6) and South Carolina (3.3).

Adam Snider, director of communications for GHSA, said geography plays a large role in high death rates in the South.

“Southern states have warmer temperatures, overall. Spring comes earlier, fall lasts longer,” he said. … “(T)here’s more warm, walkable days in the southern states than northern ones.”

Matthew Reisen of the Albuquerque Journal and David Stevens of The News contributed to this report.