More die in Houston traffic crashes than by homicide

Between the lines: Experts say traffic crashes are avoidable but happen too frequently to grab our collective attention, especially after a local election season dominated by crime.

Driving the news: 169 people died in wrecks on Houston's streets and highways from January through June this year, according to the Texas Department of Transportation's Crash Records Information System.

• In that same timeframe, 158 people died by homicide, according to the Houston Police Department's Monthly Operational Summary for June.

By the numbers: It's the first time Houston's traffic-related deaths outnumbered homicides in either the first or second half of the year during the period Axios analyzed, from January 2019 to June 2024.

• Both totals peaked in 2021, with 474 homicides and 331 road deaths, as violent crime and deadly crashes spiked nationwide.
• Homicides and traffic fatalities saw a downtrend in 2022 and 2023.

Yes but: Houston saw an 11.9% increase in the number of traffic fatalities over the first six months of 2024 compared with the first half of last year.

• During the same time, Houston homicides were down 11.2% compared with the first six months of 2023, according to HPD's tabulation.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire's office, when presented with the data, contended that traffic deaths overtaking homicides is a "spurious correlation" that doesn't mean the year will end that way.

• Whitmire's spokesperson, Mary Benton, also said the crash data doesn't reflect who's at fault, an important component in formulating policy to address the problem.
• "Murders and traffic deaths are vastly different outcomes that have vastly different approaches to mitigate," Benton said in an email to Axios. "Using one salacious thing as a comparison to another salacious thing is not a fair or balanced view of data to create a story."

Other large cities have taken different approaches to publicly confront the same problem.

• For example, leadership in Los Angeles — when earlier this year the city revealed more people had died in crashes than by homicide in 2023 — referred to the city's traffic deaths as "untenable circumstances that are threatening our community."

What they're saying: "Post-COVID, there are more people driving on our streets, which is likely a cause of the increase in fatal car crashes," Benton said. "Mayor Whitmire supports more traffic enforcement, and it is why, under his leadership, the city has collaborated with the DPS."

• Benton said Whitmire supports former Mayor Sylvester Turner's Vision Zero pledge to end traffic deaths by 2030, "but prefers Vision 2024," saying he would rather end traffic deaths today and "not wait for another six years to accomplish the goal."

Reality check: Whitmire has spoken repeatedly of traffic congestion concerns but, more than eight months after being sworn in, has yet to put forward a plan or policy on transportation.

Go deeper: Whitmire's approach to road infrastructure so far differs from Turner's, who ushered in safety and multimodal projects under Vision Zero.

State of play: Soon after his inauguration in January, Whitmire "deemphasized" the city's commitment to Vision Zero, demolished newly installed pedestrian safety medians along Houston Avenue and fired the city's chief transportation planner who oversaw road safety.

• He's also questioning road safety improvements made under Turner's watch, including those to 11th Street in the Heights, despite a draft city analysis obtained by Axios showing the work reduced crashes and crash severity.

Whitmire, a Democrat who spent nearly 30 years in the Texas Senate and served as chair of the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, instead posed violent crime as the city's most pressing issue and implemented an array of immediate fixes during his first months in office.

• That included earmarking funds for additional police cadets, selecting a suburban police chief to lead HPD and proposing a merger of the Houston and Metropolitan Transit Authority police departments, among other strategies.

In the meantime, he slashed the budget for the Houston Planning and Development Department, which oversees safe street design, by more than 30% this fiscal year as departments (other than police and fire) faced cuts across the board.

The other side: Jay Blazek Crossley, who oversees nonprofit Farm & City's push for Vision Zero plans across Texas, called the rising traffic deaths in Houston "heartbreaking and frustrating."

• "We must stop accepting empty promises about 'congestion relief' and the fantasy that we should focus on driving as fast as we want without consequences," Crossley tells Axios.
• "Instead, we need to demand that our leaders in Texas prioritize our basic right to travel safely around the Houston region, whether we're driving a truck, riding a bike, or using a wheelchair."

The bottom line: "More families this year have been devastated by sudden, life-changing events simply because of the way our transportation system is set up," Crossley said.

• "This isn't just sad. It's avoidable."