Pedestrian traffic fatalities in New York City during the first nine months of 2026 were the lowest compared to any equivalent period in over a century, according to new data the city revealed on Friday.
The figure comes despite a slew of traffic deaths that have grabbed headlines over the past few weeks.
The latest numbers from the city’s Vision Zero program to eliminate fatalities and severe injuries on city streets, released by the Department of Transportation (DOT) on Oct. 2, showed there have been 67 pedestrian traffic deaths over the first nine months of this year. The number marks a 15% drop from the same stretch last year and makes this January through September the safest for pedestrians since the city began tallying traffic deaths in 1910.
Moreover, the same period this year accounted for the second-safest for overall traffic deaths in the five boroughs since the equivalent span in 1910, according to DOT.
The agency released similarly positive numbers for the first half of this year over the summer.
The positive stats come amid a recent spate of traffic deaths over the past couple of months. The fatalities include a 15-year-old girl who was killed by a truck driver who crashed into the Citi Bike she was riding through the East Village with her friend; and a 77-year-old man who was mowed down by another truck driver who mounted the curb in Chinatown, injuring two others.
But DOT spokesperson Will Livingston insisted that despite the headlines, traffic deaths were actually down both last month and in August compared to each of the same months last year. There were 15 deaths last month, compared to 23 in September 2025, and 17 fatalities in August, down from 21 during that month last year.
Looking to increase safety with ‘Vision Zero Reimagined’
Tragedy struck Chinatown on Sept. 10 when the driver of a flatbed truck came careening off the Manhattan Bridge and struck three people — killing one of them.Photo by Dean Moses
DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said that while the city has made progress in reducing traffic deaths, there is still much work to be done to truly reduce them to zero. He said Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has recommitted to that goal with its recently released 10-year Vision Zero plan: Vision Zero Reimagined.
“Traffic deaths are not inevitable; they are preventable tragedies,” Flynn said in a statement. “While traffic fatalities are at record lows this year, we won’t let up because one fatality is one too many. This administration is doubling down on safety through its new Vision Zero Reimagined action plan and is using all available tools to protect everyone who shares our streets.”
Vision Zero Reimagined contains over 100 policy commitments to build upon many of the strategies that the city has already embraced to make streets safer, while also floating bold new ideas.
The plan includes pledges to continue cracking down on reckless drivers, lowering speed limits, redesigning streets, and clearing intersection sightlines. While light on many details, it also stated the administration’s intent to study pedestrian-only or priority districts.
However, DOT’s latest Vision Zero numbers for e-bike and e-scooter crashes were not all rosy. The new agency data revealed that deaths among those modes of transportation have trended in the wrong direction over the first three quarters of this year.
There were 17 deaths among e-bike riders and 11 e-scooter rider fatalities from the start of this year through September. Those equate to 29% and 54% increases from the same stretch of 2025.
The Mamdani administration and safe streets advocates have traced safety issues with e-bikes and e-scooters to unlawful devices, which can far exceed the 25 mph top speed and 750-watt power limits for e-bikes as well as the 20 mph speed limit for e-scooters.
Flynn, during an all-day City Council hearing examining electric micromobility earlier this week, said the agency said at least two of the 17 e-bike users who died this year were riding illegal devices, with another three being unknown. He added that six of the e-scooter rider deaths involved illegal two-wheelers, while another four are unclear.
” More than half of all riders who die in traffic crashes are riding illegal devices capable of going at high speed,” he said during the hearing. “This is dangerous and unacceptable.”
Taken together, those figures mean that 40% of e-bike and e-scooter fatalities in 2026 involved illegal devices, Livingston said. Furthermore, from 2020 through 2025, Illegal e-bikes and e-scooters accounted for 50% of rider deaths.
The vast majority of the e-bike rider deaths — 13 — involved motor vehicles, Livingston said. One involved an e-bike rider crashing into a pedestrian, with the pedestrian surviving, but not the rider.
The council has introduced a raft of bills designed to make e-micromobility safer by doing more to get illegal devices off the road, banning the fastest legal e-bikes, and tightening regulations for third-party app companies.