Pedestrian and bicycle crash hotspots in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area

New Mexico is the most dangerous state in the country to travel on foot. The Governors Highway Safety Association ranked it worst in the nation for pedestrian deaths for the eighth straight year in its 2024 report, at a rate of 4.41 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents, well ahead of second-place Arizona at 3.60.¹ Ninety-three people were killed while walking on New Mexico roads that year.¹ Fifty of them, about 53 percent, died in Bernalillo County alone.²

If you walk or ride a bike around Albuquerque or Santa Fe, that risk isn't spread evenly across the map. It piles up on a short list of wide, fast roads and a handful of intersections that show up in the data year after year.

The Albuquerque corners where pedestrians get hit most

NMDOT tracks exactly where these crashes happen, using data collected and analyzed by the University of New Mexico's Geospatial and Population Studies unit.³ In a September 2025 briefing to state lawmakers, the department listed the intersections with the most pedestrian crashes in 2024, and one street runs through almost the whole list. Central Avenue, the old Route 66, is where Albuquerque pedestrians get hit.⁴

Central and Louisiana was the worst pedestrian-crash intersection in the entire state in 2024, with 25 crashes.⁴ Central and San Pedro came next at 17, followed by Central and Eubank and Central and Wyoming with 16 apiece.⁴ Coors Boulevard (NM 45) at Central logged 14, and San Mateo and Montgomery farther north recorded 12.⁴ Central near Third Street downtown and the Interstate 40 frontage intersections at Fourth and Second streets round out the top ten.⁴

Where a crash is most likely to kill

The corners with the most crashes aren't always the ones with the most deaths. NMDOT's list of the deadliest intersections in 2024, each with three fatal crashes, was Coors Boulevard at Iliff, Central at Eubank, Central at Wyoming, Interstate 25 at Montgomery, and Central at Old Coors.⁴ Central and Eubank and Central and Wyoming land on both lists, so treat those two crossings with extra care whether you're driving, walking, or riding.

Longer-term maps back this up. The Albuquerque Area High Fatal and Injury Network, a regional map of the worst crash locations, found that the Central corridor from Washington to Tramway recorded 290 injuries and 23 deaths from 2014 to 2018, and Coors from Tower to Montaño saw 89 injuries and 23 deaths over the same period.⁵ San Mateo and Montgomery, a name that keeps recurring, logged 99 injuries.⁵ The Mid-Region Council of Governments, the metro's transportation planning agency, maintains this regional crash data.⁶

Santa Fe has its own trouble spots

Santa Fe is smaller, but the same problem shows up on its commercial strips. The statewide 2024 hotspot list put the Cerrillos Road, Siler Road, and Clark Road area at 12 pedestrian crashes, the busiest pedestrian-crash location outside Albuquerque.⁴ Cerrillos was built in the 1960s and widened to push traffic through fast, and it dominates the city's crash reviews.

The Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization has studied its corridors closely. On Airport Road between Buffalo Grass and Jemez, it counted 546 crashes from 2010 to 2020, including 5 involving pedestrians and 7 involving bicyclists, with one death.⁷ West Cordova Road from Cerrillos to the railroad tracks saw 417 crashes over that decade, 7 of them involving pedestrians and 5 involving cyclists.⁷ At St. Michael's Drive and Llano Street, the MPO recorded 66 crashes near the intersection, including one fatality plus pedestrian and bicyclist injuries.⁷ The city and the MPO publish interactive crash maps through UNM's Traffic Research Unit if you want to check a specific block.⁸

Why these roads and not others

There's a common thread. These are wide arterials with high speeds and long gaps between safe crossings, and they carry heavy foot traffic near bus stops and shopping. Speed does most of the damage. NMDOT's own materials show how fast survival odds fall: a pedestrian struck at 20 mph has roughly a 5 percent chance of dying, at 30 mph about 45 percent, and at 40 mph about 85 percent.⁴ A few miles per hour separates a limp from a fatality.

Impairment and inattention make it worse. Across New Mexico's fatal crashes, NMDOT ranks drugs (12.9 percent), driver inattention (12.4 percent), and alcohol (12.0 percent) as the leading contributing factors, with excessive speed close behind at 7.6 percent.⁴ The GHSA report found alcohol involved in 46 percent of the state's fatal pedestrian crashes, against 39 percent nationally.²

What the cities are doing about it

Albuquerque has spent heavily on Central Avenue, and the early results are encouraging. After adding a road diet, bus lanes, median refuge islands, HAWK pedestrian signals at Britt and Dorothy streets, nearly 200 solar-powered lights, and a 35 mph limit, the Albuquerque Police Department reported year-to-date declines along the corridor: all traffic fatalities down 55 percent, pedestrian and bike fatalities down 34 percent, and serious injury crashes down 60 percent.⁹

The city's Vision Zero program, which targets zero roadway deaths by 2040, is now bringing similar work to Louisiana Boulevard between Gibson and Central, with three new mid-block crossings, pedestrian hybrid beacons, and a road diet that includes separated bikeways.¹⁰ Downtown carries a 20 mph safety zone.¹⁰ Statewide, NMDOT's Target Zero effort is installing a Pedestrian Activated Warning System on Louisiana Boulevard.¹¹ In Santa Fe, the MPO is pursuing Complete Streets upgrades on these corridors, filling sidewalk gaps and fixing curb ramps that don't meet accessibility standards.⁷

The gains are real. New Mexico still held the number one spot in the most recent GHSA count, so the work is far from done.¹¹

If you or someone you love was hit

Get medical attention first, even if you feel fine. Head and internal injuries can stay hidden for hours. Ask the responding officer for a report and write down the report number. If you're able, photograph the crossing, the signal, the lighting, and any skid marks, and note whether a crosswalk or beacon was there and working.

New Mexico gives you three years from the date of a crash to file a personal injury lawsuit, under NMSA 1978, Section 37-1-8.¹² A wrongful death claim carries the same three-year window, counted from the date of death, under NMSA 1978, Section 41-2-2.¹³ Those deadlines don't bend, and evidence like signal-timing logs and nearby camera footage is usually gone long before the clock runs out. If the injuries are serious, talk with a personal injury attorney early. You can start with the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

Sources

1. Governors Highway Safety Association, "Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2024 Data," July 2025. https://www.ghsa.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/Pedestrian%20Traffic%20Fatalities%20by%20State%20-%202024%20Data%20-%207.10.25.pdf

2. Albuquerque Journal, "New Mexico ranked worst in nation for pedestrian fatalities eighth year in a row," July 2025. https://www.abqjournal.com/news/new-mexico-ranked-worst-in-nation-for-pedestrian-fatalities-eighth-year-in-a-row/490280

3. University of New Mexico Geospatial and Population Studies, Traffic Research Unit, Annual Crash Reports. https://gps.unm.edu/tru/reports/annual-crash-reports

4. New Mexico Department of Transportation and Target Zero NM, "New Mexico Crash Hotspots on NMDOT and Non-NMDOT Roadways," presented to the New Mexico Legislature, September 23, 2025. https://www.nmlegis.gov/handouts/ALFC%20092325%20Item%2011%20-%20NMDOT%20Crash%20Hotspots.pdf

5. KOB 4, "Map shows Albuquerque's most dangerous streets, intersections for crashes." https://www.kob.com/archive/map-shows-albuquerques-most-dangerous-streets-intersections-for-crashes/

6. Mid-Region Council of Governments, Safety and Crashes. https://www.mrcog-nm.gov/255/Safety-and-Crashes

7. Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization, Complete Streets. https://santafempo.org/resources-2/complete-streets/

8. Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization, Crash Data. https://santafempo.org/data/crash-data/

9. City Desk ABQ, "Central Avenue gets a 'huge glow-up' as city implements new safety features," September 8, 2025. https://citydesk.org/2025/09/08/central-avenue-gets-a-huge-glow-up-as-city-implements-new-safety-features/

10. City of Albuquerque, Vision Zero, "What Are We Doing." https://www.cabq.gov/vision-zero/what-are-we-doing

11. New Mexico Department of Transportation, "New Mexico sees decline in pedestrian fatalities in 2024," July 21, 2025. https://www.dot.nm.gov/blog/2025/07/21/new-mexico-sees-decline-in-pedestrian-fatalities-in-2024/

12. New Mexico Statutes, NMSA 1978, Section 37-1-8 (limitation of actions for injuries to the person). https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-37/article-1/section-37-1-8/

13. New Mexico Statutes, NMSA 1978, Section 41-2-2 (wrongful death; limitation of actions). https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-41/article-2/section-41-2-2/