Analysis of UC Berkeley TIMS data found child pedestrian crashes in Los Angeles County increased after summer & remained significantly higher after students returned to school.
Every fall, students across Los Angeles County return to school, bringing increased activity to school zones, crosswalks, and neighborhood streets. While drivers are often reminded to slow down and stay alert during the first few weeks of the school year, pedestrian safety remains just as important throughout the fall semester.
The Ryan Law Group, a personal injury law firm based in Manhattan Beach, analyzed four years of pedestrian collision data from UC Berkeley’s Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS) to examine trends in child pedestrian crashes during the fall school semester. The analysis examined pedestrian crashes involving children ages 5-18 in Los Angeles County from July through November between 2022 and 2025. The data showed that child pedestrian crashes remained elevated throughout the fall semester rather than being limited to the first few weeks after students returned to school.
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Overall, pedestrian-involved collisions involving children (18 or younger) increased steadily after summer. Between 2022 and 2025, Los Angeles County averaged just over 27 child pedestrian crashes in July, but that number climbed each month once students returned to school, increasing by approximately 20% in August, 53% in September, and peaking in October at nearly 61 crashes. Although collisions declined slightly in November, they remained nearly 90% higher than the July average.
Child pedestrian injuries followed the same trend. Los Angeles County averaged approximately 32 injured child pedestrians in July, but that figure rose throughout the fall. Compared to July, injuries increased by 44% in August, 70% in September, and peaked in October, when the county averaged 77 child pedestrian injuries, a 144% increase over the July average.
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While the data does not identify a single reason for the increase, it does highlight the importance of staying alert as children return to school and spend more time walking through neighborhoods, school zones, and crosswalks. These findings serve as a reminder that safe driving habits should not end after the first few weeks of the new school year.
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According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), drivers should exercise extra caution around school zones and residential neighborhoods by slowing down, stopping for school buses when required, yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks, and avoiding distractions behind the wheel.
So how can you help keep children safe this school year? Whether you are driving through a school zone or a residential neighborhood, slow down and watch carefully for children crossing the street, especially during morning drop-off and afternoon dismissal hours. Never pass a stopped school bus while its stop arm is extended, and always yield to pedestrians crossing at marked crosswalks.
Parents can also help reinforce safe walking habits by reminding children to use designated crosswalks whenever possible, advise to look left, right, and left again before crossing, and make eye contact with drivers before entering the street.
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