Austin reported 99 traffic fatalities and 301 serious injuries in 2025, according to preliminary data. While the number of deaths rose by 2% compared to 2024, serious injuries dropped by 28%. This led to a combined decrease of 22% in the most severe crashes.
Pedestrian safety improved significantly, with fatalities dropping by nearly 23% and serious injuries falling by 15%. These figures represent the lowest share of pedestrian involvement in severe crashes for Austin in recent years. This trend stands out as many other U.S. cities continue to face high pedestrian risks even as national traffic deaths stabilize after increases during the pandemic.
Serious injuries have been on a downward trend since Austin adopted Vision Zero. In comparison, both deaths and serious injuries are much lower than in 2022, when there were 117 deaths and 540 serious injuries.
Safety investments appear to be having an effect. Evaluations show that major intersection projects have resulted in a 38% reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes, while protected intersections contributed to a 42% reduction. Most traffic fatalities—about two-thirds—occur on roads owned by the state.
A closer look at different transportation modes shows mixed results for fatalities: deaths among motorists, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and e-scooter riders increased from last year, but pedestrian fatalities declined from 39 to 30. Serious injuries decreased across all categories except e-scooter riders, whose numbers rose from five to seven.
In detail:
– Motorist serious injuries fell from 264 to 178 (down about one-third).
– Pedestrian serious injuries dropped from 59 to 50.
– Motorcyclist serious injuries went down from 62 to 44.
– Bicyclist serious injuries decreased from 27 to 21.
– E-scooter rider serious injuries increased slightly.
– The total number of people seriously injured dropped from 418 in 2024 to 301 in 2025.
Despite population growth, per capita rates of combined fatal and serious injury crashes also fell—from nearly fifty per hundred thousand residents in Austin during 2024 down to just under thirty-eight per hundred thousand this past year. For context, this rate was almost sixty-five per hundred thousand back in 2022. It is noted that not everyone involved is necessarily an Austin resident due to daily visitors coming into the city.
The report also highlights equity issues related to traffic safety. Black residents remain overrepresented among those killed or seriously injured; they made up almost twelve percent of these cases last year despite being only eight percent of Austin’s population—a slight improvement over fifteen percent representation the previous year. Vision Zero efforts aim at reducing such disparities through targeted community engagement—including multilingual outreach—and better data collection where crash reports may be lacking.
Male victims continued to make up a large majority of severe crash outcomes: seventy percent last year compared with sixty-eight percent previously. Higher rates of risky behaviors like speeding or impaired driving among younger men are cited as contributing factors.
More details about trends since Vision Zero began can be found in its ten-year report released last October.
The City of Austin manages a budget totaling $5.9 billion and employs more than sixteen thousand staff members who oversee city operations (official website). The city emphasizes diversity and inclusion as core values supporting organizational goals (official website), and it has received strong ratings for municipal services compared with other large cities (official website). Efforts toward sustainable development and fostering community pride are also part of its long-term vision (official website). Additionally, historic sites like Oakwood Cemetery and Zilker Botanical Garden are maintained within its park system (official website).
