Pedestrian deaths rose about 65%; DOT still can't measure blind spots
Summary
About 9,200 pedestrians and cyclists were killed on U.S. roadways in 2024, GAO reported July 21, 2026 -- an increase of about 65% since 2010. GAO's own crash analysis found heavy-duty trucks had at least 12 times the odds of turning, rather than going straight, in fatal pedestrian crashes compared with cars in the same scenarios. The Department of Transportation has recognized the risk but has not settled on a way to measure a vehicle's blind zones, and has not fully analyzed how vehicle size and turning maneuvers drive the danger. GAO recommended DOT do both; DOT agreed to develop a measurement method but declined to commit to the broader risk analysis.
A 12-times gap in turning risk
Data on driver visibility itself -- the size of the blind zones around a vehicle -- isn't readily available, so used a proxy: whether a vehicle was turning or going straight when it was involved in a fatal pedestrian crash. Selected studies reviewed generally found that larger vehicles, certain design features, and turning maneuvers may limit a driver's view of the road and raise the risk to people outside the vehicle. 's own crash analysis bore that out: larger vehicles had higher odds of turning, rather than going straight, in fatal pedestrian crashes than cars did in the same scenarios. Heavy-duty trucks -- semi-trucks, for instance -- had at least 12 times the odds of cars.
View data as table
| Cars (baseline) | 1 |
|---|---|
| Heavy-duty trucks (e.g. semi-trucks) | 12 |
An estimated 65% rise since 2010
The backdrop is a fatality count that has been climbing for well over a decade. About 9,200 pedestrians and cyclists were killed on U.S. roadways in 2024, found -- an increase of about 65% since 2010. frames larger vehicles as one contributing factor among several, alongside their growing share of the U.S. fleet, but the turning-maneuver finding is the clearest mechanism 's own analysis points to.
View data as table
| 2010 (baseline) | 100% |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 165% |
Manufacturers have moved; two foreign regulators have moved further
selected and interviewed five auto manufacturers and five truck manufacturers. All of them, found, have developed technologies meant to help -- side bicyclist alerts, pedestrian automatic emergency braking -- and conducted their own testing and benchmarking of driver visibility. Two foreign jurisdictions have gone beyond voluntary manufacturer action: the European Union has adopted driver-visibility standards that auto and truck manufacturers must meet, and while similar regulations apply across the United Kingdom, London went further still, requiring some commercial truck operators to install additional safety equipment on top of the UK-wide rules.
DOT still can't measure the thing it needs to measure
has recognized driver-visibility risks to pedestrians and cyclists and has begun some research and data collection, found, but it has not fully analyzed those risks or developed a response. Part of the reason: has not determined a method to measure driver visibility -- the size of a vehicle's blind zones -- in cars and trucks, which says would let the agency measure the problem it's trying to solve and decide what to do about it. recommended (1) determine a method to measure driver visibility, including blind-zone size, for passenger vehicles and commercial trucks, and (2) fully analyze and address the risks that limited driver visibility poses to pedestrians and cyclists. concurred with the first recommendation. It did not concur with the second. said it continues to believe should fully implement both; as of the report, both remain open -- meaning has not yet done either, and nothing in 's process forces it to. checks back and reports on what, if anything, changed.
The takeaway
- A specific mechanism sits inside a 14-year trend. Pedestrian and cyclist deaths are up an estimated 65% since 2010, and 's own crash analysis found heavy-duty trucks turning in fatal pedestrian crashes at least 12 times as often, relative to cars, as it found for cars going straight in the same scenarios.
- The agency responsible for regulating vehicle design can't yet measure the hazard. has neither a method for measuring blind zones nor a full analysis of how vehicle size and turning maneuvers translate into pedestrian and cyclist deaths -- the two things says are prerequisites for a real response.
- Other regulators didn't wait for a perfect measurement. The EU has mandatory driver-visibility standards for manufacturers, and London requires added safety equipment on some commercial trucks -- while , per , has not committed to fully analyzing and addressing the same risk on U.S. roads.
All findings are from GAO-26-107954⧉, 'Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety: Should Take Steps to Address Risks Related to Limited Driver Visibility,' published and publicly released July 21, 2026. reviewed studies published from 2015 to 2025, analyzed pedestrian fatality data, and interviewed five selected auto manufacturers and five selected truck manufacturers, in addition to reviewing EU and London driver-visibility standards and 's own studies and planning documents. Read directly via Artemis's sealed capture of the product page after the live gao.gov URL returned HTTP 403 at retrieval time; no Wayback snapshot yet exists for a report released the same day.
Sources(1) ▾
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety: DOT Should Take Steps to Address Risks Related to Limited Driver Visibility (2026-07-21) — -26-107954, published and publicly released July 21, 2026. Examines what studies and federal data show about vehicle size, driver visibility, and pedestrian/cyclist fatalities; manufacturer mitigation efforts; EU/London regulatory approaches; and the extent to which has analyzed and responded to driver-visibility risks. Direct gao.gov fetch returned HTTP 403 at retrieval time (no Wayback snapshot yet exists for a report published the same day); read via Artemis's own sealed capture of the product page, taken at 2026-07-21T13:20:51Z. gao.gov · original document
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GAO⧉ -- Congress's own auditor, whose recommendations agencies are expected to answer -- reported on July 21, 2026 that about 9,200 pedestrians and cyclists were killed on U.S. roadways in 2024, an increase of about 65% since 2010. The size of passenger vehicles on U.S. roads has grown over the past 30 years, and 's own analysis of fatal pedestrian crashes found a specific mechanism behind part of that rise: a vehicle's blind zones, the areas around it a driver can't see, expand with size and worsen in certain turns, and larger vehicles making those turns are dramatically more likely to be involved in a fatal pedestrian crash than cars are. was asked to examine what's driving the trend, and how much the Department of Transportation () -- the federal agency that sets vehicle safety standards -- has done about it.