Pedestrian crashes in California
Across 2023, 2024 and 2025, 39,344 reported crashes in California were recorded as involving a pedestrian — about 3.2 per cent of all reported crashes. That share is small. The share of the harm is not, for the obvious reason that a person on foot has nothing around them.
| Year | Pedestrian-involved crashes | All reported crashes |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 13,043 | 409,824 |
| 2024 | 13,486 | 417,147 |
| 2025 | 12,815 | 401,589 |
By county
The twenty counties recording the most, all years combined. As everywhere on this site, these are counts and not rates — the largest counties lead because the most people walk and drive in them.
| # | County | Pedestrian-involved crashes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles | 11,760 |
| 2 | San Diego | 3,191 |
| 3 | Orange | 2,759 |
| 4 | Riverside | 1,998 |
| 5 | Sacramento | 1,932 |
| 6 | Alameda | 1,914 |
| 7 | San Bernardino | 1,889 |
| 8 | San Francisco | 1,822 |
| 9 | Santa Clara | 1,543 |
| 10 | Fresno | 953 |
| 11 | Kern | 918 |
| 12 | Contra Costa | 904 |
| 13 | San Joaquin | 778 |
| 14 | San Mateo | 705 |
| 15 | Stanislaus | 680 |
| 16 | Ventura | 664 |
| 17 | Monterey | 454 |
| 18 | Solano | 412 |
| 19 | Santa Barbara | 384 |
| 20 | Tulare | 371 |
Every county is in the county table and in the CSV download.
What the report says the person was doing
A CHP report carries a pedestrian-action code. These are the most common values recorded in 2025, across crashes where a pedestrian action was recorded at all.
| Recorded action | Crashes |
|---|---|
| CROSSING IN CROSS WALK AT INTERSECTION | 5,874 |
| CROSSING - NOT IN CROSSWALK | 3,357 |
| IN ROAD - INCLUDES SHOULDER | 3,188 |
| NOT IN ROAD | 2,075 |
| CROSSING IN CROSS WALK - NOT AT INTERSECTION | 557 |
| APPROACHING/LEAVING SCHOOL BUS | 123 |
Treat that table carefully. It records what an officer wrote down at the scene, usually in minutes, often at night, sometimes without the person on foot being able to speak. It is a classification, not a finding. It does not establish who was at fault in any crash, and California's comparative fault rule means responsibility can be shared even where a pedestrian was outside a crosswalk.
The law on crosswalks, right of way and comparative fault is on the pedestrian accidents pages — crosswalk crashes, children and school zones, and older adults.
Sources: California Crash Reporting System (CCRS), California Highway Patrol. Definitions and limitations: methodology.
Common questions
- What counts as a pedestrian crash here?
- A crash where the CHP report records the motor vehicle as having been involved with a pedestrian. It is a crash-level field, so it counts crashes rather than people, and one crash involving several people on foot still counts once.
- Why are pedestrian crashes such a small share of the total?
- They are about 3.2 per cent of reported crashes. They are a far larger share of deaths, because a person on foot has no structure around them. A small share of crashes and a large share of the harm is the pattern in every year of this data.
- What does the "pedestrian action" field tell me?
- What the reporting officer recorded the person on foot as doing — crossing in a crosswalk at an intersection, crossing outside one, in the road, not in the road. It is the officer’s classification at the scene, not a finding about fault, and it is not evidence of anything in a particular case.
- Does being outside a crosswalk mean the pedestrian was at fault?
- No. That is a legal question decided on the facts of the individual crash, and California recognises comparative fault, so responsibility can be shared. This page is a count of report codes, and it settles nothing about any case.