More Pedestrians Die in Jacksonville Than in Any Other Florida City, Despite Having Fewer Pedestrian-Involved Crashes
- April Karaffa
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
By April Karaffa, Director of Business Development and Operations, The Moore Law Firm
Summary
Pedestrians were killed in 38 Jacksonville crashes in 2025, the most of any city in Florida, and they made up 22.9% of the city's road deaths despite being involved in just 1.33% of its crashes.
This is not a side effect of Jacksonville's size. Miami had 42% more pedestrian crashes (682 to Jacksonville's 480) and still lost fewer pedestrians (27 to 38).
The difference is not how many pedestrians are struck here, but how the crashes end. A pedestrian crash in Jacksonville ends in serious injury or death (a severe crash) 15.6% of the time, against 9.5% in Miami, and it ends in a death 7.9% of the time, against 4.0%, roughly twice as deadly.
More than half of severe pedestrian crashes carry no red flag of any kind, and red flags overall are barely more common in the severe crashes (44%) than the minor ones (36%). Darkness is the one exception. The deadliest roads are dangerous on their own.
Source: Florida 2025 preliminary FDOT and FLHSMV crash release; pedestrian deaths and crash counts cover all Florida cities. A severe crash means one ending in serious (incapacitating) injury or death, using FDOT's KABCO highest-wins rule.
Why a person on foot is the hardest case
At the firm, the pedestrian cases carry the widest gap between what happened and what the person did to deserve it. Someone was walking, and a vehicle did the rest. There is no airbag, no frame, no second chance built into the moment.
So when Florida released its 2025 crash data, we traced pedestrians all the way through it, from every crash in the state, down to the ones that involved someone on foot, down to the ones that turned severe, that is, ended in serious injury or death, down to the ones that killed. What the funnel shows is not a city overrun with pedestrian crashes. It is close to the opposite, and that is what makes the death toll stand out.
The most pedestrian deaths of any Florida city
We checked every city in the state, not just the big ones. Jacksonville recorded 480 crashes involving a pedestrian in 2025, about 1.33% of all its crashes, the lowest share of any major Florida city. And yet those crashes produced 38 pedestrian deaths, more than any other city in Florida.
City | Total crashes | Pedestrian-involved | Pedestrian-severe | Pedestrian deaths |
Jacksonville | 36,045 | 480 | 75 | 38 |
Miami | 26,655 | 682 | 65 | 27 |
Tampa | 19,355 | 395 | 55 | 22 |
Orlando | 19,052 | 393 | 46 | 11 |
Fort Lauderdale | 12,799 | 278 | 52 | 10 |
Daytona Beach | 4,316 | 158 | 23 | 10 |
Hollywood | 7,895 | 162 | 16 | 8 |
North Miami | 3,024 | 78 | 15 | 8 |
Pedestrian crash funnel by Florida city, 2025: every crash, then those involving a pedestrian, then those that turned severe, then deaths.
Look at the Miami row. Miami had 682 pedestrian crashes to Jacksonville's 480, 42% more, and still lost fewer people, 27 to 38. More pedestrians die here than in the bigger, denser, more pedestrian-heavy city to the south, off a smaller number of crashes. The death toll is not coming from how many pedestrians are struck.
Rare crashes, but far likelier to kill
Run the same kind of crash in the two cities and the gap is not in how many happen, it is in how they end. In Jacksonville, a crash involving a pedestrian ends in serious injury or death 15.6% of the time. In Miami, 9.5%. Step all the way to a death and a Jacksonville pedestrian crash is fatal 7.9% of the time, against 4.0% in Miami, about twice as deadly.
It is not that more people on foot are struck here. It is that the ones who are struck are far less likely to survive it. And the person who pays is always the same one: in every fatal pedestrian crash in 2025, the person who died was the pedestrian.
What the red flags do and don't explain
If one behavior or condition drove these deaths, you would expect the severe crashes to be marked by red flags. Mostly they are not. Counting all of them together, the Driver Condition, Driver Action, and Exterior tags, only about 44% of severe pedestrian crashes carry any red flag, barely more than the 36% among the minor ones. More than half carry none at all.
Darkness is the real exception. It shows up in about 18% of severe pedestrian crashes against 5% of the minor ones, more than three times as often, the single most over-represented factor we found. But it is still a minority. No flag, and no single behavior, explains most of these crashes, which is what turns the question toward the roads themselves.
The City of Jacksonville found a related pattern in its 2025 Vision Zero Action Plan, reporting that 60% of pedestrian crashes happen at night and 63% while a person is crossing the street. Darkness and the act of crossing raise the odds. But as the road data shows next, the deadliest places stay deadly without them.
The roads where it keeps happening
If red flags explain less than half of the severe pedestrian crashes, the rest is about place. The severe crashes concentrate on a recognizable set of roads, and most of them carry no red flag at all.
Road | Pedestrian crashes | Severe | Fatal | Severe with a red flag | Severe, no red flag |
Southside Boulevard | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
Normandy Boulevard | 13 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
Arlington Expressway | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Philips Highway | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Kings Road | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
North Main Street | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Beaver Street West | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Severe pedestrian crashes on Jacksonville's top pedestrian roads in 2025, with the red-flag split. Most carried no red flag of any kind. Per-road counts are small, so read the pattern, not the exact figures.
These are wide, fast arterials, Southside, Normandy, Arlington, Kings Road, built to move cars and hard to cross on foot, and they produce severe pedestrian crashes whether or not a driver was impaired, speeding, or driving in the dark. That is the strongest sign that the danger is the road itself. The interstate and ramp system carries severe pedestrian crashes too, though the data files them all under one label.
Why the pedestrian has no margin
None of this is mysterious once you account for what a pedestrian is up against. A person on foot has no protection and a vehicle has all of it, so the same impact a driver walks away from is the one that kills someone in the crosswalk. Add speed and width, the two things these arterials supply in abundance, and the outcome is close to decided before anyone can react.
The City of Jacksonville reached the same conclusion in its 2025 Vision Zero Action Plan. That plan built a High Injury Network, the city's official map of the streets where the most people are killed and seriously hurt, and it reported that 77% of Jacksonville's pedestrian and motorcycle crashes end in serious injury or death. By the city's own measure, the street network is failing the people with the least protection on it.
What the data leaves open
Which specific intersections, not just roads, the severe pedestrian crashes cluster on.
How much of the night-time toll is lighting versus speed versus crossing distance.
How Jacksonville's pedestrian lethality compares with the rest of Northeast Florida.
What this data can and cannot say
These are preliminary FDOT numbers and may be revised as the state finalizes the 2025 release. The city comparison covers every Florida city in the data, so the rankings are statewide. The pedestrian death counts are small in absolute terms, so a single road's figure moves easily, though the citywide totals are stable. And the darkness flag is conservative, capturing unlit conditions rather than every night-time crash, so read it as a floor under the city's broader 60% figure.
Some questions that do come up
I was hit by a car while walking. Who is at fault?
It depends on the facts, but being on foot does not put you at fault, and "I didn't see them" is not a defense, it is often an admission the driver was not watching the road. Florida is a comparative-negligence state, so fault is shared based on what each person actually did. The crash report, the scene, the lighting, and any witnesses are what establish it.
Can I still recover if I was crossing outside a crosswalk?
Often, yes. Crossing mid-block may shift some share of fault to you under Florida's comparative-negligence rules, but it rarely erases the driver's duty to avoid hitting a person they could have seen. These cases turn on details like speed, sightlines, and lighting, which is why preserving the evidence early matters.
The driver who hit me drove off. What now?
A pedestrian hit-and-run is treated as both a crash and a crime. Call 911, get whatever description you can of the vehicle and the direction it went, and identify any witnesses. Your own uninsured-motorist coverage may be what pays your medical bills when the driver cannot be found.
I saw a driver hit someone walking and keep going. How can I help?
You may be the reason that driver is identified. If it is safe, call 911 and stay until officers arrive to give a statement, and write down the plate, the make, model, and color, and the direction of travel. Do not chase the car. A witness who stays is often the most valuable evidence in the case.
If you've experienced an accident on the road in NE Florida, even if you were on foot and the driver claims they never saw you, the Moore Law Firm treats every case with high importance. We secure the medical evidence, the scene evidence, and the witness work these cases demand. So don't be someone who takes a toll all for nothing. When you are ready to talk, we'll be ready to fight for you.
