{"id":188808,"date":"2026-03-03T19:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/188808\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T19:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:28:08","slug":"bicyclist-deaths-surge-in-east-texas-quadrupling-from-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/188808\/","title":{"rendered":"Bicyclist deaths surge in East Texas, quadrupling from last year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TYLER, Texas (KLTV) &#8211; The number of bicyclists killed while riding in East Texas quadrupled compared with the previous year, according to data released by the Texas Department of Transportation\u2019s Tyler District.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The data were released as part of statistics published annually by TxDOT, which detailed 165 traffic deaths in the district in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The total number of deaths increased by one compared to 2024, while rural crashes accounted for 131 of the 165 deaths, a 5% increase from the year prior.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Single-vehicle, run-off-the-road crashes resulted in 47 deaths, accounting for 29% of all fatalities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The 2025 total was the second-lowest since 2019.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Bicyclist deaths surge in East Texas, quadrupling from last year\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/NOLY5FPPAFG2BELONYKAG3RWCM.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Bicyclist deaths surge in East Texas, quadrupling from last year(TxDOT Tyler District)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Unsafe speed led all contributing factors with 27 fatal crashes, followed by failure to drive in a single lane (24), wrong-side driving (18), and alcohol and drug intoxication (17 and 15, respectively).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cAlthough we saw a slight increase in fatalities in 2025, we remained well below our five-year average and continue to see positive trends in several areas. However, pedestrian fatalities remain a significant concern,\u201d Tyler District Engineer Vernon Webb said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">With more pedestrians on East Texas roadways and other factors like speeding, distractions and impaired drivers, the risk of serious crashes increases, the engineer said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Positive trends emerged in several categories, including a 10% decrease in alcohol-related deaths. Distracted driving deaths also plummeted 62%, with only five deaths recorded in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The TxDOT Tyler District builds and maintains the state roadways in Anderson, Cherokee, Gregg, Henderson, Rusk, Smith, Van Zandt and Wood counties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KLTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TYLER, Texas (KLTV) &#8211; The number of bicyclists killed while riding in East Texas quadrupled compared with the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23791,46779,268,10912,2604,34388,18153,27,29,28,271,75169],"class_list":["post-188808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-anderson-county","tag-cherokee-county","tag-crash","tag-deaths","tag-east-texas","tag-gregg-county","tag-smith-county","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-txdot","tag-wood-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}