Those deaths I heard about in the past year were all due to careless car drivers. Maybe it's different in the US.

You might want to look into the, more deeply. Anti-car advocates (here ant least) are lumping in “high” pedestrians deaths with the cases you are expecting, to inflate their case of an increase due to traditional distracted driving. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the increase in pedestrian deaths corresponds to the same timeline as the current fentanyl epidemic. But you have to go case by case to see where your local increase is coming from.

I see your point but I am not sure where you are going with this?

Even if only 50% of the pedestrians killed were sober - isn't that enough of a crisis to act?

1500 children younger than 14 years died in traffic in the US in 2021.

https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/overview/age-group....

It’s the difference between saying “the crisis is getting worse!” And “we have a new crisis to deal with!”

Also, understanding the components of the problem lead to you know, figuring out how to fix it, eg:

https://www.kuow.org/stories/pedestrian-deaths-climb-in-seat...

I said this many times in other posts lately, but if Americans wanted to get serious about this problem, they would need a multi-faceted approach like the Dutch rather than just hoping drivers do the right thing (without focusing on road redesigns or pedestrian behavior also).