US population growth rate 2019-2022 was quite low due to the pandemic the actual increase was 18% or ~500 people from 2019. Further, working from home changed the dynamics around driving presumably a great number of people got worse because they didn’t do it as much. The numbers of pedestrians may have also increased faster than population growth rate.
They are the most difficult to see (especially from a large vehicle, or amongst large parked vehicles) and the most vulnerable to collisions, since they'll be hit directly on the head.
Rates are much higher between 4 and 65 than for the very young and the elderly. So, the person you’re replying to is correct.
I don’t mean to downplay deaths but looking at a few datapoints may not represent a trend. Economics, weather, etc vary from year to year.
It’s been 13 years, at which point do we call it a trend? Especially if you compare to peer nations which have not seen the upward trend: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/27/upshot/road-deaths-pedest...
Also, look at that chart again, 2 years after 2009 were lower than the year before. I only bring it up because of how easy it is to see trends that aren’t there.