Seattle's traffic deaths are climbing. One City Council member wants an audit to find out why

April 16, 2026 / 5:00 pm

caption: Traffic is shown heading south on I-5 toward downtown Seattle on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.

Seattle’s goal is zero traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030. Right now, the numbers are far from zero — and going nowhere but up.

Last year 219 people were seriously injured on Seattle streets, the majority of whom were driving or passengers, and around a third were pedestrians, according to a Seattle Department of Transportation presentation to the Seattle City Council Transportation, Waterfront, and Seattle Center Committee on Thursday.

As for deaths, 27 people died in traffic collisions last year, and the majority (18) were people walking. This fall, the city auditor will formally assess the Seattle’s Vision Zero program, at the request of Councilmember Rob Saka.

“This audit will better position our city to actually achieve our ambitious Vision Zero goals and save lives, so stay tuned,” he said.

Advocates testified before council members that they already know where the problem is.

“We’re still talking about the same streets,” said the Seattle Streets Alliance Executive Director Gordon Padelford. Namely Rainier Avenue, Aurora Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Lake City Way, and Fourth Ave South, which are areas already flagged by the Seattle Department of Transportation as hot spots for injuries.

“And the ingredient that’s been missing has not been a lack of ideas or commitment from SDOT, it’s been a lack of political will.”

Specifically, he said, making tough changes to streets that might inconvenience drivers, but ultimately increase safety.

SDOT Chief Transportation Safety Officer Venu Neman, told council members that for the city to achieve the Vision Zero goal, it needs to invest in as many projects as possible on the “high injury” corridors, such as Aurora and Rainier, to “fundamentally shift the dynamics” on those streets.

Reducing speeds on arterial streets would also improve safety, he said.

Carlo Alcantara of the Aurora Reimagined Coalition called lack of progress toward the Vision Zero goal “crisis territory” and proposed a rapid response program to immediately fix unsafe areas after a crash.

“That means we do quick builds, we install semi-permanent street re-reconfigurations for safety,” Alcantara said.

The audit this fall wouldn’t be the first time the Vision Zero program gets official, line-by-line scrutiny. Transportation officials completed a “top to bottom” review of the program back in 2023, as reported by the Seattle Bike Blog.

SDOT’s presentation did not include data on traffic collisions and injuries that adjusted for any changes in local population from 2015 to 2025, or changes in traffic volume.