Thursday, October 1, 2026
Thurston County is getting farther away from its Target Zero traffic safety goals, as traffic fatalities and serious injuries continue to rise, according to new data presented at a Transportation Policy Board meeting on Wednesday, May 13.
“Since these federal performance measures were put into place … we have never met our target,” said Katrina Van Every, Transportation Manager for the Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC).
She said the trend in traffic safety has not changed.
“Over the last handful of years, we have been getting farther away from Target Zero," Van Every said.
She said Congress established transportation performance measures to ensure federal funding is spent effectively and tied to national transportation goals. The measures are intended to increase accountability and transparency in transportation planning, as well as project decision-making through performance-based planning and programming.
The Thurston region tracks 24 federal performance measures across seven topic areas in coordination with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), TRPC and Intercity Transit.
Safety, transit safety and transit asset management measures are updated annually. Other categories, such as pavement, bridges, highway system performance and freight, are updated every four years and are tackled statewide.
This year’s presentation focused on safety performance measures and targets. Van Every said the data is presented using five-year rolling averages to smooth out yearly fluctuations and better identify long-term trends.
She said crash locations vary from year to year, but the data shows a significant number of people are being seriously injured or killed while using the transportation system.
Data shows nearly half of the people seriously injured or killed were drivers, though motorcyclists, pedestrians, bicyclists and passengers were also heavily represented in the crash data.
Van Every said 48% of fatalities and serious injuries involved drivers ages 16 to 25, while 32% involved motorists ages 65 and older.
Looking at user behavior involved in the fatal or serious injury crash, impairment was identified as the leading behavioral factor associated with fatal and serious injury crashes in the region, accounting for 45% of cases. Distraction was involved in about 32% of crashes, while speeding accounted for 23%.
Van Every said crashes involving vehicles departing their lane represented the highest share of fatal and serious injury crashes in the region at 66%. Intersection-related crashes accounted for 59%, while 51% involved vehicles running off the road.
The region also recorded 142 non-motorist fatalities and serious injuries over the past five years, the majority of which were serious injuries rather than deaths.
Among non-motorist crashes, 13% involved impairment, 24% involved distraction, and 45% were intersection-related, while drivers ages 16-25 and 65 and older each accounted for 17% of crashes.
“For someone who is not in a vehicle or on a motorcycle, intersections are the danger for them — that is where we are seeing the majority of these issues happen,” she noted.
Van Every said the region tracks five federal safety performance measures:
Based on those measures, Van Every said the 2026 target for fatalities on all public roads would require no more than two fatalities combined with 2025 and 2026. However, crash data from WSDOT already exceeded that threshold in 2025 alone.
The region is also missing its fatality rate target, which calls for 0.0700 fatalities per 100 million VMT. That is roughly equivalent to six or fewer fatalities annually.
Van Every said similar trends are occurring with serious injury rates and non-motorist fatalities and serious injuries.
She added that the Thurston region has never met its federal safety targets since the performance measures were implemented in 2018.
Van Every acknowledged the Target Zero goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries is aspirational.
“Whether that is realistic is another story,” she said. “The message here is that death and serious injury are not acceptable. Zero is the number of acceptable deaths and serious injuries — that is what we want in our (transportation) system.”
Van Every said local jurisdictions and agencies, such as Intercity Transit, are responsible for implementing roadway safety improvements, including crossings, roundabouts and other traffic safety projects.
She said TRPC is developing a regional safety action plan to improve coordination and access to safety funding across the region. She also mentioned a proposed regional Target Zero manager position that would focus on traffic safety data, strategies and regional coordination.
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BobJacobs
I'm so tired of unreasonable targets in public programs. Zero traffic fatalities, zero waste in garbage, 100% high school graduation, zero smoking, and on and on. These are not serious, attainable targets and they are not helpful.
Bob Jacobs
Thursday, May 14 Report this
SunterraTrail
Which locations have a greater incidence of fatalities/serious injuries? Also time of day when there is a greater likelihood of fatalities/serious injuries?
Thursday, May 14 Report this
KarenM
I disagree with Bob.
What is an 'acceptable' number of traffic deaths? I don't want someone in my family in that number or percentage. It has happened and I don't want it to happen again.
We have a cultural acceptance of traffic fatalities. That means we can justify spending the safety money elsewhere or we assign all the fault to fate.
Hoboken, New Jersey, has achieved zero traffic deaths for over nine consecutive years, with no fatalities since January 2017. Helsinki, Finland, achieved zero traffic deaths for a full year between July 2024 and July 2025.
Thursday, May 14 Report this
KarenM
We need to build and retrofit the system to avoid crashes of all kinds - that means cars, trucks, cyclists, pedestrians. Looking at past crashes is one helpful data point. We shouldn't wait until someone is killed before we make the changes to prevent deaths. There is good information available about how to build safer systems.
Thursday, May 14 Report this
chrispc2u
Please. Just stop staring at your phone and texting while you’re driving.
Thursday, May 14 Report this
JnNwmn
Phones are a very big distraction. How many times do you sit at a red light and it turns green. There is a car ahead that does not go because THEY ARE ON THEIR PHONE...... The fast drivers are also a danger. SLOW DOWN.
Friday, May 15 Report this
SecondOtter
Maybe part of the increase is the fact that many drivers these days haven't had to go to Driving School, and I believe a driving test is no longer required. I may be wrong about the latter. Once you turn 18 you don't have to prove you have had driver's training at all.
Let's factor in law enforcement...there's not enough cops doing traffic. Then add in what I can only blame on the video games on the internet, eg, 'grand theft auto' that seems to encourage the most outrageous stunts and speeds seen by those younger than this Boomer.
Not a day goes by if I'm driving that I get cut off, I'll have right of way and someone making a right turn will do so right in front of me rather than wait one or two seconds for me to pass.
People treat red lights, stop signs, yielding right of way, no passing zones, etc as a choice rather than a law. Just recently I was waiting on the traffic to clear at Trosper Rd. intersection with Tyee and some idiot turned left out of the Fred Meyer gas station, discovered he was in the wrong lane (incoming traffic from I-5 and the Fred Meyer's area, and a berm was in the middle and he..I am not kidding, STOPPED, backed up IN THE LANE and then turned the right direction (east on Trosper). Only because the drivers in front of me had the brains to stop and let the idiot do his U turn in the lane.
There are some intersections in Lacey , Tumwater and Olympia where I can guarantee at least one and sometimes three drivers will run a red light. Add to that the truck drivers who ride your ass at 65 mph on the interstate.
No doubt that there are more collisions and accidents.
Friday, May 15 Report this
CrabbyWill
We need to increase traffic stops for speeding. Many of the streets around here are like race tracks. If you start enforcing traffic laws, the word gets out and traffic slows down. You will always have speeders, but if they get caught enough times, they won't have a license anymore. Enforcement is the only way. Roundabouts slow them down for about 30 yards and then they punch the throttle. I've almost been hit in roundabout crosswalks about 5 times. One was by a driver that was staring at his phone while going through a roundabout! Enforcement of existing laws works. We should try it sometime.
Saturday, May 16 Report this
SC4011
A target goal of zero is unrealistic. That is like allocating a budget to reach zero cancer deaths. Not practical.
Stupid drivers and increased traffic due to growth. Let’s address that!
Thank you!
Sunday, May 17 Report this