A sign calling for drivers to slow down. by the author.

With 37 fatalities, 2020 was the deadliest year for traffic crashes in DC in more than a decade. Now it’s all but guaranteed that 2021 will be deadlier after Nina Larson became the 37th person to be killed in a traffic crash this year.

Larson, 24, an aspiring opera singer and restaurant employee, was killed by a driver while crossing Columbia Road NW in Adams Morgan on Saturday afternoon. She is one of 15 pedestrians killed so far this year, according to Vision Zero data.

The pandemic era has been deadly for pedestrians across the country, and DC is no exception. Nationally, pedestrian fatalities per miles traveled increased by more than 20% between 2019 and 2020, according to the Urban Institute. Overall, 2020 saw the biggest traffic fatality spike in nearly 100 years, Vox reports, and 2021 isn’t looking any better.

DC’s Vision Zero program, launched in 2015, is meant to lower fatalities across the District. But even before 2020, it hasn’t been working; since the program began, fatalities only decreased once, in 2019. Now the program is being audited.

In addition to the 15 pedestrians killed by drivers, three bicyclists have been killed — one, Allison Hart, just five years old. Nine motorcycle and moped riders have been killed, as well as eight drivers and two vehicle passengers.

Beyond the fatality rate, thousands of people have been injured in crashes this year, more than 4,000 of them while driving or riding in cars. 459 pedestrians and 251 bicyclists have also been injured.

Libby Solomon was a writer/editor and Managing Editor for GGWash from 2020 to 2022. She was previously a reporter for the Baltimore Sun covering the Baltimore suburbs and a writer for Johns Hopkins University’s Centers for Civic Impact.