After 30% Spike in 2024, New Jersey Traffic Deaths Drop by 15% in 2025

New Jersey launched the nation’s first statewide Vision Zero plan last year.

1 minute read

January 6, 2026, 5:00 AM PST

By Diana Ionescu @aworkoffiction


Crosswalk on street with green bike lane in Hoboken, New Jersey.

James Andrews1 / Shutterstock

After an alarming rise in traffic fatalities in 2024, when crashes on New Jersey roads killed the highest number of people in three decades, the number of traffic deaths dropped by 15 percent in 2025.

As Larry Higgs reports for NJ.com, the New Jersey State Police preliminarily projects 575 deaths in 2025, compared to 684 in 2024. The state met its goal of reducing traffic deaths to 577 and exceeded NHTSA predictions that it would decrease fatalities by 10 percent.

In January 2025, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed the nation’s first statewide Vision Zero initiative, creating a commission to develop a statewide plan to eliminate traffic deaths by 2040. “The 72-page plan, described as the nation’s first statewide strategy to end roadway fatalities, laid out an ambitious roadmap.”

The report makes specific recommendations in seven areas: “driver education, pedestrian safety, road design, driver awareness of safety laws, speed management, vehicle safety and post-crash care.”

Thursday, January 1, 2026 in NJ.com

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