Written by Texas is one of the deadliest states for pedestrians, and Citizens for Road Safety (CRS) is on a mission to protect lives and prevent needless injury and death.
Nearly 700 Texas pedestrians lost their lives to someone behind the wheel in 2025, per the Governors Highway Safety Association. Of the states with the highest number of pedestrian fatalities that year, the Lone Star State ranked in the top 10 with a pedestrian fatality rate of 2.32 deaths per 100,000 people. Texas’ rate ranks 8th nationwide and sits above the national rate of 1.97 deaths per 100,000 in 2025.
Harris County accounted for 165 fatal crashes involving pedestrians in 2025, the most in Texas, per preliminary Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) data. Dallas County followed with 85 fatal pedestrian crashes, then Bexar County with 72, Tarrant County with 52, and Travis County with 37.
While population centers account for a majority of the deaths, more than 110 individual Texas communities experienced a pedestrian fatality in 2025. That translates to 700 fewer of our Texas neighbors, friends and loved ones with us.
With support from TxDOT, Citizens for Road Safety is aiming to lower that number by training law enforcement, equipping communities and raising awareness about how the Lisa Torry Smith Act can make Texas crosswalks safer.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed the Lisa Torry Smith Act into law in 2021 after it received bipartisan support in the Texas Legislature.
Lisa was a mother of two who, in 2017, was hit and killed in a Fort Bend County crosswalk while walking her son to school. Prior to 2021, there was no law in Texas forbidding drivers from striking pedestrians in a crosswalk — including in Lisa’s case. Her sister, Gina Torry, and civic leaders helped champion the new legislation in Lisa’s honor.
It gives Texas law enforcement more tools to crack down on dangerous driving in and around crosswalks in multiple ways. First, it mandates that drivers come to a complete stop when someone is using a crosswalk rather than simply “yield,” as Texas statutes previously prescribed. Second, it provides law enforcement with the ability to ticket or arrest drivers who violate the law.
But it has largely gone unenforced by police departments and prosecutors statewide. That’s where Citizens for Road Safety is stepping in to provide training sessions for law enforcement and district attorney offices statewide. The training includes how and when police officers can ticket drivers for illegally entering a crosswalk, under what circumstances a driver can be arrested and indicted, and ways to work with the community to ensure everyone — from drivers to pedestrians — is following the law.
Thousands of new laws are enacted during each legislature in Texas. Law enforcement is required to keep abreast of each new statute, but sometimes these can fall through the cracks. With CRS’ free supplemental training, Texas police departments, sheriff’s offices and district attorneys can learn the ins and outs of the new law — while putting a face to the new law.
“It’s been an incredible experience for our team to go out to small towns and big cities all over Texas to raise awareness of the new crosswalk law with law enforcement,” says Gina Torry, President of Citizens for Road Safety. “The one common thread we found when our team would pull into town, or a neighborhood, was it was clear that we were in a place where local law enforcement and leaders deeply cared about the well-being and safety of the people they serve.”
In Waxahachie, Police Chief Joe Wiser had his department undergo training on the Lisa Torry Smith Act. The quaint city about 30 miles south of Dallas has seen exploding population growth coupled with more people choosing to walk and bike, Wiser says. It’s home to several new neighborhoods with children on foot or e-scooters, along with busy crosswalks near the Ellis County courthouse connecting nearby parks to downtown.
With so many more people sharing the roadways, and caring for his town’s public safety, Wiser wanted his 100 police officers abreast of the new law. They underwent CRS training in April 2026 and have been keeping close eyes on crosswalks ever since.
“There are a lot of laws that are enacted that, just out of human curiosity, the officers that are charged with enforcing them will say, ‘Why is this law important?’ There is nothing to replace the fact that you have someone who lost a loved one,” Wiser says. “Gina Torry’s willingness to do that and give us added information about that law was a perfect example of how communities and police can work together to get us to a better place.”
In Sweeny, about an hour outside Houston, the town swells by twice its size during the workday with people commuting to and from nearby refineries. Coupled with the morning and afternoon rush from a large public-school complex, daily traffic becomes a headache for drivers and potentially dangerous for pedestrians.
Sweeny Police Chief Brad Caudle spent part of his 35 years in law enforcement working as a traffic officer, so he knows all too well the dangers his city’s pedestrians face.
“You don’t see [crashes] involving pedestrians in crosswalks [taken] as seriously as how they should be taken,” Caudle says. “Thank goodness that a lot of them don’t result in major injury or death, but I think it’s taken for granted the true seriousness of what can happen when either the driver or pedestrian may not be paying the attention that they should.”
“I was ignorant that the laws had changed,” Caudle acknowledged. “Officers should be more familiar. A lot of times, it’s an afterthought of actually what the consequences are of somebody being injured in a crosswalk. The last thing we want to do is have to utilize this law. The whole idea is to prevent things from happening before it gets to that point.”
Prosecutors in Montgomery County filed charges against a driver accused of hitting someone in a crosswalk after taking the CRS training. District Attorney Mike Holley says each case is its own set of circumstances and that the new law gives public safety officials more tools to make streets safer.
“Driving is one of the most dangerous things most of us do, and we do it every day,” Holley says. “Anything that can help us prevent serious injuries and deaths deserves our attention.”
“This law gives us options we didn’t have before,” Holley added. “[Texas] prosecutors should understand its requirements and work with investigators to ensure that potential cases are recognized and thoroughly investigated.
“At the scene, our prosecutors help obtain necessary warrants, provide guidance on investigative and charging issues, and coordinate specialized resources. The goal is a thorough, coordinated investigation that identifies and preserves the evidence and gives us the information needed to make sound decisions.
“The training has helped clarify the charging options available and the evidence needed to evaluate them, particularly when a victim survives but suffers injuries. The law gives officers and prosecutors an additional way to pursue accountability when the evidence establishes criminal negligence. Understanding that option helps guide the investigation from the outset. It is an important tool for protecting the public, and we intend to use it when the facts and law support it.”
Pedestrian fatalities spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic and climbed to a record 819 deaths in Texas in 2021. Since then, the annual numbers have been slowly declining, but they’re still above pre-pandemic levels. Because of efforts by TXDOT, Citizens for Road Safety and other road safety advocates in Texas, there was a 9% drop in pedestrian fatalities in Texas between 2024 and 2025, per the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA).
GHSA says pedestrian safety awareness efforts and law enforcement interventions are major contributors to declining pedestrian deaths in the last few years. More work is to be done, and Citizens for Road Safety is answering the call. TxDOT is urging everyone to #DriveLikeATexan: Kind. Courteous. Safe.