By Izi Witt

 

 

Every February, Walk Bike Nashville partners with Families for Safe Streets to host a Pedestrian Memorial to honor and remember the pedestrians and cyclists who were killed in Davidson County from the previous year. Saturday, February 21, marked Walk Bike Nashville’s ninth annual pedestrian memorial. We worked with community members and council members to honor the 24 pedestrians and three cyclists who were killed by drivers in 2025 on Nashville roads. While this number is down from last year, there is still a long way to go before we can reach Vision Zero. 

Instead of having one centralized memorial, we wanted to work with community members to place memorials at each fatal crash site and show how fatalities touch every corner of our city. Walk Bike Nashville hosted a small gathering on Haywood Lane to remember the three pedestrians who were killed there last year. 

The Historic Germantown Neighborhood Association partnered with Metro Councilmember Jacob Kupin and Vision Zero Advisory Committee Member Kim Unertl on hosting a gathering on Third Avenue N. in memory of Dot Dobbins.

So far, 21 dove memorials have been placed at fatal crash sites, with three more to be placed in the near future. The other three crash sites were interstate crashes, and markers will not be placed there for safety purposes.

The doves used for memorials were created by an artist-led collaboration between local carpenters and community-hosted paint gatherings in partnership with Black Mental Health Village, the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, Paragon Mills Elementary School Art Club, students of WEB Tutorial, and Martin Luther King Jr. School in partnership with the Nashville Public Library’s Watkins Park branch.

Walk Bike Nashville partnered with Trinity Community Commons to use their space to distribute memorial materials during a community dinner on Tuesday night. It was a special experience to engage with other community members and share the story behind the pedestrian memorial. 

If you've been personally impacted by a fatal or serious injury crash, you can join Families for Safe Streets. To learn more about how to advocate for safer streets, become a Walk Bike Nashville member today!

These 27 people lost their lives while walking or cycling on Davidson County roads in 2025. We honor their lives and call for immediate action to create safer streets.

  • James Byrnes
  • Mack Tyrone Cosby
  • Jerry Crutcher
  • Dot Dobbins
  • James D. Galloway Jr.
  • Koriona Harding
  • Larissa Houston
  • Robert L. Jones
  • Nicholas Leonhardt
  • Lorenzo Mendoza
  • Rustin Needer
  • Patricia Owens
  • Kira Phillips
  • Robert Powell
  • Melena Sanderson
  • Jose Salamanca
  • Julie Savoy
  • Blaise Schaeffer
  • Lha Tun
  • 8 unnamed pedestrians