San Francisco, CA — The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) together with the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) and the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) today announced San Francisco recorded a significant reduction in traffic fatalities in 2025, with deaths dropping sharply from the prior year. The city saw 25 traffic deaths in 2025, down from 43 in 2024, resulting in a 42 percent decrease, following a particularly difficult year marked by several rare, high severity crashes.
This falls below the city’s typical average of 30 deaths per year. In December 2025, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced San Francisco’s new Street Safety Initiative, formally adopting the Safe System approach and recognizing that preventing the most serious crashes requires a coordinated, whole-of-government response.
As part of the Initiative’s first 100 days, city agencies co-led by the SFMTA, SFDPH, and SFPD, are working together to strengthen how serious injuries and fatalities are tracked and reported. This coordinated, data-driven effort improves the City’s ability to identify risk sooner, support more coordinated responses to what data show is happening on our streets, and guide future safety efforts.
“Since day one, I've made clear that safety is non-negotiable in San Francisco, and the numbers are clear that our streets are getting safer,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie. “But there's no question we have more work to do, and my Street Safety executive directive will continue that work to ensure seniors, children, and people with disabilities can safely travel around our city. We have laid the groundwork, and with this plan in place, we will implement a more coordinated, effective approach to street safety.”
“We have made significant strides in advancing street and traffic safety, but any loss of life or serious injury is unacceptable, and there is more work to be done. Death or serious harm should never be the cost of getting around our city,” said Julie Kirschbaum, SFMTA Director of Transportation.” I want to thank Mayor Lurie for creating a new Street Safety Initiative that helps us stay focused, responsive, and coordinated so city government works better together to address the most serious risks and make our streets safer for everyone.”
“We know that traffic injuries and fatalities are preventable, and we remain committed to working with our City partners to make San Francisco’s streets safer for everyone,” said Dr. Susan Philip, Director of the Population Health Division, San Francisco Department of Public Health. “We will continue to collaborate and provide the key data that are among our most powerful tools to help guide and measure our progress toward our shared goal of safer streets for all.”
“The SFMTA has been a critical partner to keep everyone safe on our streets,” said SFPD Chief Derrick Lew. “As part of our strategic traffic plan, we will continue to work with the SFMTA and our other city partners to conduct enforcement along the city's high injury network corridors and save lives.”
While fatalities show the most severe and rare outcomes, tracking collisions, injuries, crash severity, contributing factors, and where crashes occur gives a clearer picture of risk and helps identify dangerous patterns earlier.
Key 2025 Findings
- Traffic fatalities declined in 2025 by 42 percent compared to 2024
- Lowest number of traffic fatalities since 2018
- Pedestrian fatalities reduced by 33 percent
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Preliminary data shows 2025 had the 2nd lowest year of total traffic crashes resulting in injury since 2014 when Vision Zero was first adopted. The lowest year to date was 2020, the first year of the pandemic.
While overall outcomes improved in 2025, risk remains uneven across the transportation system. Pedestrians, particularly seniors, accounted for a larger share of traffic fatalities, even as the total number of pedestrian deaths declined by 33 percent.
These patterns underscore why San Francisco is sharpening its focus on the most severe crashes and the factors that drive them, such as speed, and why the City is now aligning more agencies around this work to act more consistently and effectively.
“This data shows that when the city invests in safer street design, it saves lives,” said Robin Pam of Streets For All. “To sustain that progress, we need to double down on what’s working and accelerate investment in safer streets to prevent more serious injuries and deaths. Mayor Lurie’s Street Safety Initiative is an important step toward prioritizing this work across all city agencies.”
The data-driven initiative coordinates city agencies on some of the most complex street safety challenges, and continues to use data to guide future investments, especially areas of risk, including dangerous speeds and intersection safety.
Early and ongoing actions include:
- Continuing to prioritize speed safety cameras, which have cut speeding by 78 percent where installed.
- Begin and maintain high visibility enforcement in priority locations, including the High Injury Network
- Identifying the new High Injury Network to focus safety efforts where severe and fatal crashes are most concentrated
- Making intersections safer through daylighting, following completion of school daylighting citywide, with a focus on locations serving other vulnerable groups, including seniors and the new High Injury Network.
- Improving how serious injuries and fatalities are tracked and reported, to identify risk earlier, coordinate responses more effectively and efficiently.
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