If you were just hit while walking or riding a bike here, you are not a rare case. In 2024, drivers struck 807 people on foot in Palm Beach County and killed 61 of them, up from 54 pedestrian deaths the year before as pedestrian crashes in the county climbed 13 percent.1 Another 724 crashes involved cyclists, and six of those riders died.1 Stretch the count across the full West Palm Beach and Fort Pierce television market, which also takes in Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, and Okeechobee counties, and 91 pedestrians and cyclists were killed in that single year.1
The metro that contains Palm Beach County, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, ranks 14th among the country's 101 largest metro areas for pedestrian danger. It recorded 1,054 pedestrian deaths from 2018 through 2022, an average of 3.44 for every 100,000 residents each year.2 Eight of the 20 deadliest large metros for people on foot are in Florida.2
Where the crashes cluster in Palm Beach County
Palm Beach County's wrecks pile up on a short list of wide arterials, most of them in the suburban corridor running from West Palm Beach down to Lake Worth Beach. Military Trail is the backbone of that pattern. At North Military Trail and Okeechobee Boulevard in suburban West Palm Beach, county engineers logged 119 crashes in 2024, the highest total at any intersection in the county and up from 92 the year before.3 South Military Trail and Forest Hill Boulevard had 101, and Atlantic Avenue and South Military Trail in Delray Beach had 89.3 Up in Jupiter, North Alternate A1A and East Indiantown Road recorded 95.3
Six of the 10 worst intersections sit in that West Palm Beach to Lake Worth Beach core, and Okeechobee Boulevard, the east-west route that funnels Wellington and Royal Palm Beach traffic into downtown, threads through several of them.3 Look at the county's 200 busiest intersections together and the picture is worse. Crashes there hit 9,246 in 2024, more than 25 a day, up 36 percent from 2020.3 Those figures come from the University of Florida's Signal Four Analytics, the crash-mapping system the university runs with the Florida Department of Transportation.34
Those intersection tallies count every crash, not only the ones that hurt someone walking or biking. That distinction matters, but so does the overlap. Military Trail, Okeechobee Boulevard, and Atlantic Avenue are exactly the kind of fast, multi-lane roads where a person on foot has the least room and the longest distance to cross.
The Treasure Coast, U.S. 1, and Fort Pierce
North of the county line, one road carries most of the harm: U.S. 1. In St. Lucie County, drivers hit 125 people on foot in 2024 and killed six, and struck 120 cyclists, one of whom died.1 Fort Pierce sits in the middle of it. Over a single Sunday in early 2026, two pedestrians were hit hours apart on U.S. 1 in the city, first near Virginia Avenue and later at South U.S. 1 and Lakefront Boulevard. One of them died.5 The Fort Pierce Police Department, which handled both, called U.S. 1 a busy corridor and asked people to use marked crosswalks, though those can sit far apart on a highway built to move traffic through town.5
Indian River County saw the sharpest turn. Pedestrian deaths there climbed to 11 in 2024, up from four in 2023 and two in 2022, even as the raw number of crashes barely changed.1 Martin County lost two pedestrians and two cyclists, and Okeechobee County one pedestrian.1 The Treasure Coast is often treated as the calmer end of the market. Its crash math says otherwise.
Why these particular roads
The streets doing the most damage share a design. They are multi-lane state and county highways with high posted speeds, long gaps between traffic signals, and blocks that can run most of a mile with no marked place to cross. Smart Growth America, whose Dangerous by Design report is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ties the national rise in these deaths to roads built to move cars quickly rather than to keep everyone else safe.2 The country recorded 7,522 pedestrian deaths in 2022, the most in 40 years and a 75 percent jump since 2010.2
Florida's own toll stayed high in 2024, with 678 pedestrians and 209 cyclists killed statewide.1 Cycling is trending the wrong way in particular. Bicyclist crashes across Florida rose almost 11 percent in a year, to 9,325 in 2024.1
Who is working on it
Several agencies own a piece of this. The Florida Department of Transportation controls U.S. 1 and the other state highways where many of the worst crashes happen. The Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency runs a Vision Zero program aimed at ending traffic deaths and publishes quarterly pedestrian and bicycle crash reports for the county.6 On the Treasure Coast, the St. Lucie Transportation Planning Organization tracks the same crash data to decide where sidewalks, bike lanes, signals, and high-visibility crosswalks are added. The fixes are known. Funding and time are the bottleneck.
If a driver hit you
A few steps protect both your recovery and any claim you might bring. Call police so an officer documents the scene. In Florida the crash report an officer files is the record insurers and courts lean on, and you can request your copy from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.1 See a doctor even if you think you can walk it off, because head and internal injuries often show up days later. Photograph the spot, the vehicle, and the crossing or lane where it happened, and note whether there was a working signal, a marked crosswalk, or any sidewalk at all. Road design is often part of what went wrong.
If you are deciding whether to pursue a claim, you can compare local personal injury attorneys through the thatcarhitme.com legal directory.
This article is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
-
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Florida Traffic Crash Facts Annual Report 2024. https://www.flhsmv.gov/pdf/crashreports/2024-Crash-Report.pdf
-
Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition, Dangerous by Design 2024. https://smartgrowthamerica.org/dangerous-by-design/
-
The Palm Beach Post (Julius Whigham II), "Crashes surge at Palm Beach County's most dangerous intersections," May 2026. https://www.aol.com/news/crashes-surge-palm-beach-countys-162704537.html
-
Signal Four Analytics (S4Analytics), Florida crash data platform, University of Florida GeoPlan Center and the Florida Department of Transportation. https://signal4analytics.com/
-
CBS12 News (WTVX), "Two pedestrians struck while crossing U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce; 1 killed, 1 critical." https://cw34.com/news/local/two-pedestrians-struck-while-crossing-us-1-in-fort-pierce-1-killed-1-critical-ondition-police-investigation-hit-and-run-safety-crosswalk-traffic-hazard-infiniti-volkswagen-wheelchair-driver-cooperation-treasure-coast
-
Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency, Vision Zero program and Pedestrian and Bicycle Quarterly Crash Reports. https://palmbeachmpo.org/visionzero/