Roads turn less deadly in Pinellas County, but not up north in Hernando County

Pinellas County cut its traffic deaths faster than any other county in our comparison of the Tampa Bay area and similar metros across the Sun Belt. At the northern edge of the region, Hernando County went the other way.

Pinellas recorded 158 traffic deaths in 2021 and 112 in 2023, according to the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System. That is a decline of 29.1%, which ranked first among the Tampa Bay counties and the principal counties of peer metros.

Across the bay, Hillsborough County also improved. Its toll fell from 271 deaths in 2021 to 230 in 2023, a drop of 15.1%. That put Hillsborough fourth in the same ranking, and it means fewer people died on the county's roads in 2023 than in 2021.

Most of the region beat the state

Pasco County's deaths fell 12.4% over the same stretch. Statewide, Florida's traffic deaths dropped 9.8%.

That leaves Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco each falling faster than Florida as a whole. Pasco's decline was the most modest of the group, and Pinellas pulled far ahead of the other counties that share the bridges and the commute.

Hernando is the exception. Its traffic deaths rose 36.4% from 2021 to 2023, the only Tampa Bay county where the count went up.

The county's numbers are small next to its neighbors. Hernando's worst year from 2015 through 2023 brought 45 deaths, while Pasco's worst year in that span brought 107. With counts that low, a handful of additional crashes can move the percentage a long way, but the direction still ran against the rest of the region.

How the region compares beyond the bay

Florida's other big metros also saw fewer deaths. Orange County, home to Orlando, fell 20.4%, a bigger drop than Hillsborough's. Duval County, home to Jacksonville, fell 13.6%, a smaller one.

Not every peer improved. Denver County headed the wrong direction, with traffic deaths up 11.8% between 2021 and 2023, an increase that was smaller than Hernando's.

More of the dead were on foot

The overall decline doesn't capture who is dying. In Hillsborough, pedestrians made up 28.7% of traffic deaths in 2023, a share that rose 2.9 percentage points from 2022.

Pasco's pedestrian share climbed faster, rising 7.7 percentage points from 2022 to 2023.

So the roads in Hillsborough and Pasco claimed fewer lives in 2023 than in 2021. Of the people they did kill, a larger slice were walking, not riding in a vehicle.

About the data

We used county-level fatality counts from the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System for 2015 through 2023 and calculated the percent change in traffic deaths from 2021 to 2023 for Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties, Florida statewide and the principal counties of peer metros. Counties were ranked by percent change, with the biggest drop at the top, so places of different size could be compared on change rather than raw counts. Pedestrian share is the portion of each county's traffic deaths in which the person killed was a pedestrian.

• Hernando County's annual death counts are small, so a modest change in the number of crashes produces a large percentage swing.
• The data counts deaths where crashes happened, not where victims lived, and it does not explain why deaths rose or fell.
• Pedestrian share measures the portion of all deaths, so it can rise even when the number of pedestrian deaths does not.

Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS): a national census of motor-vehicle crashes on public roads in which at least one person died. Pedestrian share: the percentage of a county's traffic deaths in which the person killed was a pedestrian. Percentage point: the simple difference between one percentage and another, as opposed to the percent change between them.

Sources

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS): Fatal crashes and deaths by year — 4 counties (Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, Pasco County…), 2015–2024 (FARS) (FARS 2015–2024), latest period 2024; retrieved Oct. 20, 2026. Data
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS): Traffic deaths by road user — 4 counties (Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, Pasco County…), 2022–2024 (FARS) (FARS 2022–2024), latest period 2024; retrieved Oct. 20, 2026. Data
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS): Fatal crashes and deaths by year — Florida, 2015–2024 (FARS) (FARS 2015–2024), latest period 2024; retrieved Oct. 20, 2026. Data
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS): Fatal crashes and deaths by year — 10 counties (Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, Pasco County…), 2015–2024 (FARS) (FARS 2015–2024), latest period 2024; retrieved Oct. 20, 2026. Data