The city’s Department of Transportation announced last week that 2025 ended with the lowest number of traffic deaths in a single year since counts began in 1910.
The agency, in a Jan. 2 press release, said the 205 traffic deaths recorded in 2025 represent a 19 percent decline from 253 fatalities in 2024, and are one fewer than the previous record low in 2018, when 206 people were killed in crashes.
The DOT said overall, traffic deaths are down 31 percent since the launch of Vision Zero in January 2014.
“No New Yorker should lose their life while walking, driving, or biking in our city,” Deputy Mayor of Operations Julia Kerson said. “Vision Zero has shown that the choices we make — how we design our streets and how we enforce traffic laws — save lives.”
Kerson said Mayor Mamdani’s administration will double down on measures such as street redesigns, protected bike lanes and protected bus lanes to make streets even safer.
The DOT said outer boroughs experienced the sharpest declines in traffic deaths, with the Bronx and Queens seeing the greatest improvements.
The Bronx experienced a 39 percent decline, with 33 fatalities down from 54 in 2024. Queens saw a 23 percent decline, from 74 in 2024 to 57.
Staten Island, going from 12 to 13, was the only borough to have an increase.
The DOT said people in every major travel mode experienced a decline in traffic deaths in 2025, including pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicle occupants.
Leading the decline was the sharp drop in deaths among drivers and occupants of motor vehicles by 40 percent, and motorcycle users, by 32 percent.
Pedestrian fatalities remain at among the lowest levels ever, declining 9 percent, from 122 in 2024 to 111 last year.
As of Dec. 15, total injuries had fallen by 7.7 percent, from 51,540 in 2024, to 47,557. Serious injuries were down 2.8 percent, from 3,031 in 2024 to 2,947 in 2025.