The numbers are in, the most dangerous city for pedestrians in the U.S. is Memphis, Tennessee. The folks at Texas Law Dog just finished their annual survey of the most dangerous cities. With 83 accidents involving pedestrians in 2024, the 621,056 Memphis resident suffered pedestrian fatality rate of 13.36 per 100,000 people.

I was especially surprised to see that Memphis, out of every city in the U.S., was so dangerous for pedestrians last year because I just reported that it’s also the most dangerous for drivers.

Here are the numbers: Memphis had the highest number of fatal car accidents of any city in the U.S., with 24.18 fatal accidents per 100,000 residents. Also, it had the most people killed in those accidents when 25.96 folks passed away per 100,000 residents.

What’s going on here? Possibly there are multiple factors. With a 600k population, Memphis proper is relatively small, as cities go. But it has a much larger metropolitan area. It also has many tourist visitors. So these numbers may be artificially inflated.

There are two more possible factors. The first, I’ve already mentioned. The high number of pedestrian deaths may impact the overall average. Memphis is known for downtown party destinations such as Beale Street, so people drinking and walking around may be at more risk. In addition, Memphis has the highest number of fatal accidents involving at least one drunk driver, with 7.5 per 100,000 residents.

Overall, Memphis is a lovely and friendly town. It is widely heralded as the “Home of the Blues & Birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” That may be why it claims more mentions in songs than any other town (currently 400 and counting). But if you do decide to visit, drink safely and don’t become a statistic.