{"id":372609,"date":"2026-06-24T05:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T05:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/372609\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T05:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T05:41:08","slug":"new-report-ranks-bakersfield-as-third-deadliest-u-s-city-for-pedestrians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/372609\/","title":{"rendered":"New report ranks Bakersfield as third deadliest U.S. city for pedestrians"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 Walking across Bakersfield streets can be dangerous, and a new national report again places the city among the worst places in the country for pedestrians.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman died after she was hit by a car while crossing a road in downtown Salt Lake City on June 5, 2026. (Photo: Heidi Hatch, KUTV)<\/p>\n

A new study ranks Bakersfield as the third deadliest metro area in the United States for pedestrians, according to a Smart Growth America report that compares metro areas nationwide for pedestrian deaths. The report argues many of the country\u2019s most dangerous roads are designed to move cars quickly, often at the expense of pedestrian safety.<\/p>\n

The Bakersfield Police Department said pedestrian crashes \u201chave been, and remain a major problem in Bakersfield,\u201d and that preventing them is a shared responsibility between drivers and people crossing the street. Police said areas with the most concerning number of pedestrian-involved crashes include locations with large transient populations and Union Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnion Avenue throughout my entire career has been a place of concern, somewhere that we’ve tried to really impact through our operations,\u201d said Sgt. Caleb Kiser of the Bakersfield Police Departments Traffic Division.<\/p>\n

Kiser said road design is a traffic engineering issue, but he added that speeding is not always the main cause of pedestrian crashes. He said lower speeds can affect the severity of collisions and emphasized that both drivers and pedestrians play a role in preventing serious incidents.<\/p>\n

\"{p}A<\/p>\n

A 9-year-old boy has died after being struck by a truck as he entered a crosswalk in Pleasant Grove, Utah on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (Photo: David Ochoa, KUTV)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a shared responsibility. Just because you have the right of way as a driver doesn’t always mean that, um, you’re wanting to participate in that life-changing collision,\u201d Kiser said.<\/p>\n

Kiser also urged pedestrians to stay alert and try to make eye contact with drivers when crossing roadways.<\/p>\n

As the year reaches its midpoint, Bakersfield police provided pedestrian-involved incident statistics from the past three years. The department said pedestrian fatalities have remained \u201cpretty steady,\u201d while pedestrian injuries have increased slightly.<\/p>\n

Between January and June of this year, 90 pedestrians were injured. That is four more than during the same time period in 2025 and 10 more than in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers have been pretty steady,\u201d Kiser said.<\/p>\n

Kiser said many people might assume juveniles are most likely to take risks around traffic, but police data points elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"Newly<\/p>\n

Newly painted crosswalk markings were added to Bank Street and Holby Road in the Oleander-Sunset neighborhood, an area where an 8-year-old boy was struck and killed in October 2024. PHOTO: KBAK\/KBFX<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people would expect the juveniles to be the ones making the poor decisions or putting themselves in dangerous situations. But by and large it’s adults,\u201d Kiser said.<\/p>\n

With summer underway, Kiser said there tends to be \u201ca little bit of a spike\u201d in pedestrian-related incidents during what is often referred to as the \u201c100 deadliest days of summer,\u201d citing younger drivers out of school, nicer weather and more people out and about.<\/p>\n

Kiser said enforcement efforts include traffic division operations where officers contact drivers involved in unsafe roadway behavior. He said those operations also include education, such as handing out safety pamphlets and roadway information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 Walking across Bakersfield streets can be dangerous, and a new national report again places the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-372609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}