New Mexico Leads the Nation in Hit-and-Run Fatalities

New Mexico leads the nation in the rate of hit-and-run crashes that lead to fatalities, according to a recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

According to new research, New Mexico had a rate of 0.8 fatal hit-and-run crashes per 100,000 residents between 2010 and 2016. Florida and Louisiana had similar rates.

According to the AAA Foundation, hit-and-run collisions nationwide have been increasing by 7.2 percent annually. And the death toll from hit-and-run crashes reached an all-time high of 2,049 in 2016. And most of the people killed in hit-and-run collisions are pedestrians. In 2016, according to the AAA Foundation, 1,229 pedestrians died in such crashes.

The number of fatal hit-and-run crashes in New Mexico has been increasing steadily. In 2006, the state had nine crashes that resulted in at least one fatality. In 2016, there were 31 fatal hit-and-run crashes in the state.

In 2015, there were 737,100 hit-and-run crashes in the nation.